


Make Me Your Home

by Reader115



Series: Home [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Artwork by suitboxers added!, Fermented juniberry juice leads to tipsy paladins, First Kiss, Fluff, Galra Keith (Voltron), Keith adjusting to being part Galra, Lance adjusting to his spot on the team, M/M, Pining Keith (Voltron), Pining Lance (Voltron), Sexual Content, So season 2 spoilers, Some Cursing, Spooning, healing pods are needed sometimes but no graphic injuries, i thought i'd have a little fun with Galra Keith, klance, set in season 2, space puppies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-08
Updated: 2017-02-26
Packaged: 2018-09-22 20:21:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 38,212
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9623936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reader115/pseuds/Reader115
Summary: “Oh my god, Keeeith,” Lance wheezed. “Keith you’re the best drunk space cadet I’ve ever seen.”“Space cadet,” Keith mumbled. He repeated the words again although his eyes had zeroed in on Lance’s hands and Lance offered no resistance when Keith picked one of them up and pulled it possessively towards his lap. He began to gently trace over Lance’s fingers, sending shivers up Lance’s arm and down his spine. “You have looong fingers,” Keith murmured after a few moments.Keith’s face perked up then, as if he’d just had a brilliant idea, and Lance could almost not wait to hear what new obscure thought had entered Keith’s pretty head. He was prepared to laugh, and instead found himself shivering again as Keith leaned far into his personal bubble, lips practically touching Lance’s ear when he spoke next.“I bet you could reach all kinds of things, Lance.”Update: Now with ART by suitboxers!!





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I thought I'd attempt to resolve issues not discussed in season 2 (they had time to go to a space mall but zero time to let the team discuss the fact that Keith is part Galra?), while adding in Klance (which I’m gonna go ahead and say will lead to a mature rating on this one), and having a little fun with Galra!Keith.
> 
> And since I wanted to address some things that happened in season 2, I squeezed in exact lines from the show. And while I wanted to make it obvious which lines those were (since I didn't write them) I don't like the look of bolded words in the text just for that purpose. And italicizing is also out (because I italicize a lot - so it would be confusing?) In the end I just decided to assume that most people reading this would have seen the season and just know exactly which lines were taken from the show. Here seems like a good place to mention that I do not own Voltron.
> 
> March 2017 Exciting Update! Suitboxers offered to make some art to go with this story - each one is from scenes they've chosen, they're all scattered throughout the story, and they're AMAZING. Please head over to their [Tumblr](https://suitboxers.tumblr.com/) and check out some of their other amazing artwork!

Keith stared at his bedroom ceiling while he thought about Allura using her sweetest voice to thank Hunk for retrieving the scaultrite for the ship while he got a cold, indifferent stare for his troubles.

He kicked off his blankets and quickly pulled his boots back on. When they'd returned from his "Knowledge or Death" fight with the Blade of Marmora, he'd let Shiro explain the challenge he'd just faced. Mainly because he was sure if he told the story, his voice would shake. He'd stood next to Shiro with his arms crossed as tightly as he could manage across his chest just to hide the fact that his goddamn hands were shaking while his knife – his Marmora blade – had felt like it weighed a solid ton in the holster around his waist.

There was dead silence from the group when Shiro – blessed Shiro who managed to tell the others that Keith was part Galra like it was no big deal - stopped talking.

 _Dead silence_. Even Allura's footsteps had not made a sound as she had left the room.

"I'll check on her," Coran had said quietly as he followed and left the room as well.

Keith couldn't meet anyone's eyes. He was already freaking out enough without being forced to see their horrified expressions as they processed that he was no longer just Keith.

Like he hadn't been the main outcast in the group to begin with.

"But -" Hunk's voice finally broke through the silence, "but Galra are purple and fuzzy."

Keith's eyes slowly rose to meet Hunk's face. That was the biggest problem Hunk had with this whole situation? The fact that Keith wasn't purple enough?

"Can Galra shape-shift like Alteans?" Pidge asked with a tilt of her head as she turned her attention to Hunk. "But how would baby Keith know to make himself look more human than Galra as he was raised on earth?"

"I thought Allura and Coran said the Galra hadn't made it as far as Earth yet?" Hunk added.

"They were also asleep for ten thousand years. I don't know why we accept everything they knew about the Galra as fact. Think how much can change on Earth in just ten years?"

"Okay, Pidge, but should we be concerned that they've clearly been to Earth?"

Keith turned to meet Shiro's eyes with a desperate plea. He didn't want to face disgust from his fellow paladins, but he had no idea how to handle emotionless scientific theories, either.

"Maybe you should go wash up," Shiro suggested in a low voice as Pidge and Hunk continued their questions off to the side.

Keith's shoulders sank. This wasn't what he'd been expecting, well maybe Allura's reaction was, but he wasn't sure why he was surprised to be feeling disappointment right now.

He'd left the main control room to head to his own room, but slowed when he realized that Lance had not only followed, but was now keeping in step next to him.

"I thought you were in trouble." Lance's low tone reached him a few steps later. "We locked in on Red and she was attacking the base."

Keith stopped in his tracks and turned towards Lance fully. He'd completely avoided Lance's eyes back in the control room. And Lance had been abnormally quiet during and following Shiro's entire recounting. Keith wasn't sure what to make of that. But now, facing him, Lance looked – he looked worried?

Lance's weight shifted to one hip and he crossed his own arms as he fixed a semi-irritated glare towards Keith. Something he couldn't quite pull off considering half his mouth was fighting to turn into a grin. "Ya know, since history tells us that Red taking off on her own means you've gotten yourself into some sort of mess."

"I'm not the only one who gets into messes," Keith muttered back, feeling instantly better in the familiarity of having Lance pick a dumb fight with him.

"Yeah, but this seems to be at the level of you taking on Zarkon by yourself," Lance said, his tone slightly more serious than before. He released a deep sigh and continued to stare at Keith. "Why would you agree to fight that many at once?" He punched Keith in the shoulder, fast, although not hard enough – he thought – to draw out the loud hiss of pain Keith released at the impact.

Keith wrapped his other hand around his injured shoulder. "I – I didn't know how many it would end up being," he said, nearly panting from the pain shooting down his arm.

Lance was on him in the next second, pulling Keith's chest armor over his head and unzipping the back of his body suit before Keith could even react.

"Keith, fuck," Lance muttered when he had Keith's shoulder exposed. "Why didn't you say anything? You should be in a pod!" He began shoving at Keith, changing their course away from the bedrooms and towards the med room.

Keith groaned. "I don't need a pod, Lance." He tried to plant his feet, but he was weak from his earlier fight. "It's a scrape."

" _A scrape he says_ ," Lance mocked. "Any deeper and it would've taken off your arm, space cadet."

They almost run right into Shiro, Hunk, and Pidge as the other three paladins were leaving the main control room, and Lance immediately gets justification in his claims for Keith to get medical attention as the others got sight of his deep shoulder wound.

"Keith," Shiro added when Keith continued to try to twist himself out of Lance's hands.

Keith gave in at the sound of Shiro's _dad voice_ and allowed the rest of the team to cart him off to a pod.

And Shiro, Lance, Hunk, Pidge, and Coran had been there when he'd come out of the pod the next day. Seeing the rest of the team definitely lessened the sting of not seeing Allura there.

They'd shuffled him to bed where he'd thankfully fallen right into sleep. And he'd actually stayed asleep through most of that day, likely his body taking advantage of the fact that he was horizontal since he rarely slept a full eight hours as it was. It was Lance who came into his room later that evening to drag him to dinner.

After dinner the paladins were summoned to the control room where they were all briefed on their new plan for taking down Zarkon, which included a few missions beforehand, splitting the team into small groups.

As Keith and Hunk prepared to set off for their own mission, Keith got a hug from Shiro before he sent Lance a quick nod, wishing him luck. Lance had taken a step towards him, but he'd kept his hands to himself at the last minute. He'd tried to cover his aborted hug with finger guns and a smile, but there was something intense in his eyes that didn't match the rest of his expression. Something that Keith read as a mix of _good luck_ and _get your ass back here safely_. At least, those were the things Keith hoped his own eyes were saying to his teammate.

And when their respective smaller missions had been completed, and the five of them had been summoned back to the Balmera to help defend the castle, he couldn't explain the relief he'd felt when he first heard Lance's voice over the comms. He was grateful Shiro and Pidge were safe as well, as always, but there was something about that last look before their separation that made Keith want to be near the blue paladin again.

But for some reason _his want_ actually had him doing the exact opposite. He'd let his eyes run over Lance once they were all safely back in the castle after taking down the Robeast. But then he'd focused on the task of unloading the scaultrite and delivering it to Coran before sitting through their mission debriefings where he got to meet Slav, a creature who visibly made Shiro's blood pressure rise. Keith did his best to keep his amusement to himself, although Pidge was openly gleeful about it.

At the end of the meeting he stood, from his seat next to Lance, and headed towards his room where he'd tried to sleep but couldn't. So far, the paladin life seemed to be one of constant battles and maneuvering, something he happened to love. But so much activity after his Galra revelation meant he hadn't had time to process it himself. His teammates probably hadn't had time either, which left him on edge to try to figure out if his place on the team had changed.

With his boots back on, he left his room and went directly to Red. Regrettably, he hadn't had much time alone with her over the past few days. As he entered her hangar, he could practically feel her senses as they roved over him, much, like he assumed a mother cat would check on their young after a tumble. He was sure if Red could, she'd headbutt him, often, for some of his more foolish choices. Not that she was against all of his choices. He'd felt her excitement during their battles rival his own.

He sent Red a message that he was _perfectly fine – what was sleep anyway_?

If she could roll her eyes at him, she was doing it now. But she still allowed him to climb inside and sit in the pilot seat as a warm hum surrounded him. Red didn't purr often, Keith seemed to hear from the others that their lions purred all the time, but Red seemed to making an exception for him today.

 _Did you know_? he finally asked her, wondering how deep her sense about him could go. Wondering if she had maybe smelled the Galra on him before he even found out the truth.

_I knew you were meant for me._

A surge of warmth seemed to wrap around him and he swallowed hard. _So you don't care? That I'm_ –

_I care that you're upset._

Keith sighed and let his fingers run across some of her controls. _Thanks_.

Another surge of warmth blanketed him and he curled into the pilot seat and let the rumbling purrs lull him into sleep.

 

* * *

 

When Keith woke from his nap, he stretched and thanked Red for accommodating him. She sent him an amused rumble as he meandered out into the hangar. And as he left Red, he noticed Pidge sitting with Green, surrounded by electronics and wires and equipment that Keith would never know what to do with. She didn't appear to be currently working on anything at the moment, though, just leaning back against one of Green's paws as she watched a hologram video with a strange half-smile on her face.

Keith approached her slowly. He'd only had one on one time with Hunk since his big revelation, and while Hunk could never be intentionally cruel to anyone, Keith had been pretty uncomfortable the entire time Hunk had questioned him about his percentage of Galra heritage, while also staring closely at Keith's skin. But he hadn't had any one on one time with Pidge, and he wasn't sure what to expect. Pidge noticed him then, though, and immediately waved him over.

"You have to see this!" Pidge said in a rush. "My god, Keith, this is the funniest thing I've ever seen. I mean, I heard most of it over the comms during our mission, but to see the video?" Pidge's laughter took over then, preventing further words as she hit the rewind button on the hologram in order to begin it again.

Keith took the open invitation to sit and stared up at the video. He could see Shiro and Slav in a room he didn't recognize.

"Is this -"

"Yeah, I managed to hook up a link to the security footage at Beta Traz," Pidge said, waving her small hand like it was no big deal. "Now shush and watch."

They sat in silence for a few minutes and Keith let himself exhale a breath and relax as he realized Pidge wasn't treating him any differently.

"What was that whole deal with Slav and the blanket?" Keith whispered.

"I have no idea, but did you see how quickly Shiro blew up at him? He was as red as a tomato!"

"He was – in a stressful situation, Pidge. You guys were in a _Galra_ prison? Cut him some slack."

" _It's a tiny puddle!_ " Shiro's voice shouted out through the video.

Pidge cackled. "This is truly so much better on video." She leaned back on her arms and glanced over at Keith thoughtfully. "We could've used you there, actually."

"To try to keep Shiro calm?"

Pidge huffed out a chuckled but shook her head. "You know, a lot of Galra technology is activated and inactivated just by the user being Galra, like finger scans and thing of that nature. So I bet being part Galra means you can interact with their tech. Like maybe you could open doors for us or even shut down some of their system, you know?"

Keith huffed out a breath, equal parts upset that Pidge would think his being part Galra was cool, while also feeling another wave of relief because Pidge thought his being part Galra was cool.

"Pidge -" he started, "I know that the Galra took your father and brother, so -"

"Keith." Pidge cut him off with an eyeroll. " _Galra commanded by Zarkon_ took Matt and my father, so please stop that train of thought. Plus, look at this." She pulled up a second hologram next to the first, a short video she'd watched several times since she'd found it.

Keith's eyes widened as he watched the new video. "Is that -"

"Matt." Pidge nodded. "The records say he was taken by rebels."

"Wow," Keith breathed out.

Pidge nodded again. "I still don't know where he is. But at least he's not still near Zarkon. Although, this also means I can't hack their intel to try to find him anymore."

"Pidge you in here?"

Keith's and Pidge's heads turned towards Hunk's call.

"Finally found you," Hunk said heading towards them. "Hey, Keith," he added as he spotted Keith sitting with the green paladin. "Has Galra Keith told you any jokes? I'm trying to keep a running tally. You know, for science."

"No jokes," Keith said, scratching a hand across the back of his neck. He tried to force a smile that probably looked a little more like a grimace.

"So, Pidge, do you have time to work on that new weapon with me?"

"Yup," Pidge said, jumping to her feet. "Catch you later, Keith."

Keith nodded and watched them leave the hanger. He overheard Pidge telling Hunk to use the word _yup_ around Lance as often as possible, which led both of them to chuckle again as the door closed behind them.

Keith's eyes returned to the video stream and he continued to watch his teammates' efforts to work through the mission. And yes, maybe Shiro's eye twitch did make him smile, not that he'd ever admit it to anyone.

Then the video stream switched to Lance walking down a hallway with what Keith now knew to be a Yupper from the mission debriefing they'd all sat through. Keith found himself immediately admiring Lance in his paladin armor and turned the volume up when Lance began speaking.

" _Pidge is the hacker of our group. Shiro is our awesome leader_."

Keith rolled his eyes and scowled as he made a mental note to talk to Lance about making sure someone was an _actual ally_ before he began spilling all of Voltron's secrets.

" _Keith is always doing things like flying into asteroid fields and black holes and cool junk like that_."

Keith couldn't stop himself from hitting the rewind button. And not just because he couldn't believe that Lance was boasting about him, but because he wanted another look at Lance's face _when_ he said those things. He'd seen that expression on Lance before, an awed fondness that curved his face into softer features that usually appeared only when Lance spoke of his family. And here it was, present as he talked about Keith.

Keith could feel his face warm and was grateful Pidge wasn't still here to see him blush over a few kind words and a soft look from Lance.

Plus, Keith thought to himself, as he hit the rewind button one more time, it was proof that Lance didn't actually hate him. The two of them had had a few shiny moments of teamwork over the past few months, but mainly Lance made snide remarks in his direction and glared at him for reasons Keith didn't quite understand.

Well, maybe he understood. He even accepted that he was the one who started their reunion off badly by pretending not to recognize Lance when they'd rescued Shiro back on Earth. He wished he could take his denial back. Or find a way to explain to Lance why he'd said those things. But in that moment, he couldn't separate Lance from the Garrison. The Garrison which had thrown him out on his ass. It hadn't been the first time someone had discarded him, either. So when he'd seen Lance, the cute cargo pilot who was still safely ensconced in the Garrison, he'd felt only shame. And unfortunately his first reaction had been to brush off any memory of Lance.

Keith would still deny their Garrison rivalry, though. While he had certainly noticed Lance in their shared classes, his only wish had been for Lance to talk to him as easily as Lance talked to literally everyone else. He wasn't trying to one up Lance in any way back then. Or now. In fact, he was still in the same boat of wishing Lance would talk to him like a friend. He glanced at the video again and let a small surge of hope soar in his chest. Because if Lance didn't hate him, then maybe they would end up friends.

Keith knew he still wanted _more_. But he'd settle for friends.

He resisted the urge to rewind a third time and focused back on the screen when Lance began speaking again.

" _And I thought I was the sharpshooter. But I guess no one else did_."

Keith frowned immediately. His previous warm feelings were gone instantly as anger filled him. Who the fuck had put that thought into Lance's head? Lance was the best sharpshooter Keith had ever seen. His accuracy during not only their training drills, but in their real life combat situations was uncanny.

" _Maybe I don't have a thing_ ," on-screen Lance continued and Keith felt his chest tighten at the sadness in Lance's tone. " _Maybe I'm just a fifth wheel. Seventh if you count Coran and Allura. That's a horrible wheel to be_."

" _Yup_ ," the dog-like Yupper creature replied.

Keith continued to glare at the screen as he tried to equate this downtrodden, sad Lance with the self-assured, cocky Lance he was used to. He wondered how much of the public face Lance shared with all of them was just an act.

The video continued overhead but Keith stood. He wasn't sure where Lance was at the moment, but he was sure he could be doing more to make sure Lance knew he was an important member of this team. He was just about to turn and leave, but was distracted when the fight began between the Galra prison warden and Shiro, Pidge, and Lance. He froze and grimaced a few times as he watched his teammates get thrown around the room. Keith wondered if Shiro knew about this surveillance video, because without Slav opening the airlock and hurling them all into space, Keith wasn't sure how else they could've gotten out of this one. And maybe Shiro could take some pointers from the tape for future practice drills.

Although his teammates disappeared from the video feed, Keith was impressed to hear that Pidge had added the recording from their comms to the video – perhaps Shiro had asked her to keep track of their missions in some way?

" _Wait_!" Lance's voice interjected, " _I got this_."

Keith already knew what happened. But he held his breath anyway as he heard a deep breath from Lance before he saw a flash on screen, forcing the warden to release Slav into open space to join his paladin rescuers.

" _Nice job, Lance!"_ Shiro could be heard saying. _"That's why we bring our sharpshooter_."

 _Thank you, Shiro_ , Keith thought to himself.

" _Yup_ ," Lance responded, making Keith smile as he heard Lance use the same low tone as the Yupper.

The screen went blank and Keith paused. For whatever reason, Lance had been feeling down about his place on the team and his sharpshooter skills. It seemed crazy to Keith that Lance – fully human, exuberant, gorgeous, talented Lance – could feel self conscious about anything.

But despite exhibiting some pretty low self esteem issues in the middle of the mission, Lance had eventually saved the day using the very skills he'd been concerned about. So, he probably didn't need Keith to try to cheer him up. Keith rubbed a hand across the back of his neck. It wasn't like he knew how to cheer anyone up anyway.

He sent Green a goodbye wave and left the hangar. They were all in waiting mode right now as the next step in their plan to defeat Zarkon was coming together. He thought about doing a little training and was headed in that direction when he almost ran right into Lance coming around a corner.

Lance was shirtless – _dear Lord_ \- wearing only a pair of blue swim trunks and a towel around his neck. Keith swallowed hard at the sight of so much smooth brown skin.

"Keith."

Keith snapped his eyes upward to Lance's face as he belatedly realized that Lance had probably said his name more than once. He raised an eyebrow in question as a response.

"I asked if you'd seen Hunk around?"

Keith nodded.

Lance stared back at Keith and waited. Keith's eyes had dropped away from his face again and Lance tilted his head as he tried to decide if that was a blush running up Keith's neck and across his pretty face.

"Keith," he repeated. Keith's eyes jerked back up to his face once again. "So where's Hunk?"

"He's uh – Hunk's working on a weapon project with Pidge."

"Oh," Lance said and Keith watched as Lance's shoulders sagged. "He was supposed to go swimming with me."

"There's a pool?"

Lance's eyes lit up again. "Yeah, do you – do you wanna swim?"

Keith nodded. Anything to keep that smile on Lance's face.

Lance looped an arm around Keith's shoulder and turned them in the direction of Keith's room.

"Uh, what are we doing?"

"As much as you love that half jacket of yours, mullet, you can't swim in it," Lance said, opening Keith's door and leading them into Keith's room. "There's a bathing suit in your closet."

He let go of Keith's shoulders with a small shove, directing Keith in the direction of his closet and allowed himself the chance to look around while Keith dug through the extra clothes they had each been provided. Lance had never had a reason to be in Keith's private space before and found that there wasn't much to see. None of them had had a chance to pack anything when they left, but Lance had still managed to amass small collections of space rocks and other space junk from some of the planets they'd visited.

He turned away from the sparse room and back towards Keith who he found was currently pulling his shirt over his head.

"Wha – what are you doing?"

Keith turned towards him, confused expression in place. "Changing into my bathing suit?"

Lance bit back a strange choking noise in his throat as he hurled himself towards Keith and pushed Keith – while ignoring the fact that his fingers were touching the bare skin of Keith's back – towards his private bathroom.

"Go change in there," he managed to say. Then for good measure, he left Keith's room completely and leaned against the wall right outside it. He popped off the wall a few moments later when Keith reappeared, grateful to have his heart rate back to normal by then.

Not that a shirtless Keith was helping his heart rate. Why had he invited Keith to get half naked with him and go swimming? Where Keith would be covered in water and - slippery? He could feel his neck heating up and turned away from Keith to lead the way to the pool.

"Whoa," Keith said a few moments later as they entered the pool area and he was treated to a view of the largest pool he'd ever seen. "How did I not know this was here?"

"Maybe because you spend all your spare time in the training room instead of exploring?"

"Extra training is not a bad thing," Keith said with a huff as he threw his towel on a chair. "You could use some extra hand to hand training."

"And you could use some extra swim time," Lance responded automatically as he tossed his own towel aside. He stretched his arms above his head and let out a satisfied groan as he felt his muscles stretch. He glanced in Keith's direction and paused when it looked like Keith's face was turning red. It was kind of a nice color against Keith's light skin tone, but led Lance to frown. "Wait, you do know how to swim right, desert boy?"

Keith sent a glare back in his direction. "Yes, I know how to swim."

Lance began to wade into the pool, practically sighing in relief as the water wrapped around his ankles and then his calves as he continued. He looked back over his shoulder to Keith. "Come on then, mullet. Ya up for a race?" He could see the competitive gleam in Keith's eyes light up before Keith even answered.

There was a mini race to the deep end as Lance took off when he saw Keith begin to charge into the water. And he was ready with a splash of water to Keith's face when Keith finally reached the side of the pool beside him. Keith maybe tried to drown him for it, but it had been worth it.

"From here to the other side and back?" Lance finally asked with one arm wrapped over the edge of the pool as support.

Keith eyed the width of the pool before glancing back at Lance. "I'm not sure a swimming race against the _water paladin_ is going to be entirely fair."

Lance gaped at him. "Wait, do you think - you think I'm going to beat you?"

"Plus you have those ridiculously long legs." Keith glanced down toward Lance's legs through the water.

Lance huffed out an irritated breath and fixed Keith with a sour look. "Oh I get it, you're just trying to psyche me out before the race?"

"I'm just pretty sure I should get a head start," Keith said matter of factly.

Lance's eyes widened in disbelief. Either Keith was trying to freak him out to gain an advantage for their race, or the great Keith Kogane was honestly worried about losing. To him.

"I mean, if we ever have a lava race, I'll give you a head start."

Lance barked out a laugh before he could stop himself. "Oh my god you're the worst!" He splashed Keith again and then tried to shield himself when Keith splashed back. "I didn't even know you knew _how_ to joke, you loser."

Keith tilted his head to the side, looking for all intents and purposes as if he was actually still being serious.

"I don't think it's outside the realm of possibility that we could encounter a planet with lava -"

"Oh my god, Keeith," Lance wheezed at the picture of innocence in front of him. "You're awful and terrible and I don't know why I invited you to swim with me!"

There was more splashing, but at the end of it, Lance was face to face with a Keith Kogane who was actually smiling. _In_ _his direction_. Showing off two rows of pretty teeth and dimples. Christ.

"There and back," Lance repeated, unable to keep a wide grin off his own face as he pointed to the other side of the deep end.

Keith nodded in return and Lance pressed his feet against the wall of the pool, ready to shoot off the side. He counted off with a _ready, set, go_ and then took off through the water.

He could practically feel Keith swimming nearby. Not right next to him, but close. And when he did a flip turn on the opposite side of the pool – something he spent a few weeks one summer perfecting – he was practically ecstatic to see that he was definitely ahead of Keith.

It was on his way back to the other side that something – or more specifically a red paladin someone – snagged his ankle and broke his stride. He gasped, mostly out of shock that Keith would pull such a move, but didn't let it deter him from retaliating by diving for Keith as Keith tried to pass him. One hand landed on a shoulder while the other wrapped around Keith's middle and he hauled the other paladin through the water and did his best to toss him backwards. Then he jerked away from Keith's flailing arms before they could make contact and try to grab hold of him again. He backpedaled in the water for the few seconds it took to make sure he was staying out of Keith's reach before he flipped and resumed his previous steady strides to the other side of the pool.

He won the race, which meant he was in full on victory dance mode, as much as one could dance when their feet couldn't touch the ground, by the time Keith grabbed hold of the edge of the pool beside him. Keith was panting slightly. And glowering at him. But Lance continued his swimming victory dance with the widest grin his face would allow.

"I can't believe you would cheat!" Lance finally said when the dance was completed. "I mean, I guess when you're up against all this - " he waved a hand up and down his chest, "- it can make a person feel a little desperate."

"Maybe I just thought it would be best to squeeze in some hand to hand training," Keith said with a smirk.

Keith had had an idea that Lance would be at home in the water. But that tiny thought was nothing compared to just how natural Lance looked as he streamed through the water. And Keith still wasn't sure how Lance had managed to throw him back a few feet through the water when he'd had absolutely no leverage to aid him.

And Lance was certainly the picture of a water child right now. He kept running his hands through his hair, forcing the wet strands to stick up at odd angles that Keith found weirdly endearing. And Keith certainly couldn't complain about seeing all those water droplets run from behind Lance's ears, over his neck, down his chest. _Holy shit_ , Keith thought as he forced his eyes back up to Lance's face.

Right now, Lance was shaking his head at him in disbelief while he laughed out the words, "Hand to hand training my ass, you cheater. You're as bad as my brother, Mark. He pulled all kinds of shit like that when we raced."

"You guys went swimming a lot, right?"

"God, yes," Lance said with a fond smile. "We practically lived in water in the summer. My sister, Gabby, taught me how to dive. Plus, we'd have contests to see who could hold their breath the longest. Or we'd talk under water and then see if the others understood us. My cousins were always around too, so we'd play marco polo or shark attack or -"

"What's shark attack?"

Lance glanced around the pool at the interruption, and suddenly Keith wished he hadn't asked because Lance's face did a strange shuttering as if he realized he wasn't in a pool full of family members.

Keith reminded himself that he wasn't supposed to be making Lance feel sad, which led to panicking and saying the first thing that came to mind.

"I've never known anyone like you."

Lance's mouth twisted as he stared across the still water in the pool. "You mean loud and obnox-"

Keith cut him off. "Someone who just loves his family."

Lance shut his mouth and swallowed over the sudden lump in this throat.

"It kind of rolls over to how you treat everyone here as well."

Apparently Keith's mouth decided it was going to take over for a bit. His brain worked to catch up. He thought about how sad Lance had looked talking to the Yupper on the prison feed. And whether the two of them bickered all the time or not, he wanted Lance happy. And now that his brain had joined the party, he knew he wasn't going to be so obvious as to try to cheer Lance up by mentioning that he thought Lance was an amazing shot. Besides, Lance had several other important roles he and he alone filled on their team. Keith could easily focus on one of those things for the time being.

He met Lance's eyes and took in the shocked expression. But there was hope there too. Something in those blue eyes that was silently begging Keith not to be messing with him right now. So Keith decided to continue.

"I mean, you're ridiculously generous with your time. I don't know how you manage it, but I know you spend time with almost everyone on this ship every day. It's like you're making rounds, just checking on everyone. Making sure we've taken a break. That we're not taking ourselves too seriously. _That we're not spending the night in the training room_."

Keith rolled his eyes thinking back to the night Lance had hurled enough competitive insults at him, something about how he was going to kick Keith's ass in training the next morning only because he got more sleep than Keith, that managed to coax Keith out of the training simulator with the gladiator – at one in the morning - and off to his room in a huff to prove he could sleep just as long as Lance.

A solid eight hours of sleep later and Keith, with a newly cleared mind, finally realized what it was Lance had done.

Lance's eyes ducked down and Keith watched as a smile curled Lance's lips as a pretty red color spread across his handsome face.

"I'm glad you asked me to swim." Keith swallowed and told himself he could be brave. After all, he wanted Lance to think of him as a friend. So he ignored how vulnerable he felt any time he stretched out of his comfort zone and opened his mouth again. "If you ever want to swim again and can't find anyone, uh, just – just come find me."

Lance's eyes shot up to Keith's then and Keith swallowed again at the muted hope he could see there.

"I mean, it doesn't have to be swimming. Just come find me and I'll hang out with you."

And he meant it. He knew Lance hated to be alone, and in turn, Keith found he hated the vision he imagined of Lance wandering the castle looking for a friend. Especially considering how much Lance did for everyone else.

Plus, Keith wanted Lance as a friend. At least. At least maybe they could be friends.

And maybe most people became friends without all the awkwardness that Keith was pretty sure was rolling off of him right now. But he had no real basis for how good friendships formed, so he was doing his best.

Plus, the way Lance was currently grinning at him told him he couldn't be too far off the mark right now.

"You free after this?" Lance asked.

Keith raised an eyebrow in question.

"Let's grab some snacks and go watch a movie."

And maybe Lance dunked him on their way out of the pool. But Keith swore revenge the next time they found themselves near lava.

 

* * *

 

"Why'd you leave the Garrison?"

"They kicked me out."

"Why though?"

Lance tossed another piece of what they'd taken to calling space popcorn, really just energy bars that Hunk had smashed into pieces so they could feel like they were eating popcorn with their movies, in Keith's direction. He watched Keith catch it neatly in his mouth. Just like he'd caught every piece up to that point. Lance's catching average was slightly lower.

"Thirty, twelve."

Okay a lot lower. He tossed another piece.

"Thirty-one, twelve."

"So why'd they toss out Mr. Perfect?"

Keith threw a piece of space popcorn his way. It bounced off his nose and maybe landed in his mouth by accident. He was still counting it.

"Thirty-one, thirteen," he said with a grin.

Keith huffed out a breath from his side of the couch. But he didn't call Lance out on the near miss.

"I wasn't perf – look, can I ask you something first?"

Lance pulled his legs up underneath himself – criss-cross applesauce his youngest sister called it – and nodded back at Keith.

"Do you really not care that I'm part Galra?"

Lance blinked.

"I mean, Shiro was surprised, but he said it didn't change anything. And Hunk and Pidge seem more interested in the _how_ part. And Allura -," Keith trailed off there before his eyes landed on Lance again. "But you haven't really _reacted_ at all."

"Well, I, uh, I guess I didn't know how to bring it up with you to see how you were doing."

"Me?"

"Yeah. I'd say learning you're part alien is pretty huge and I thought you might need some time to adjust before I started badgering you to see how you're feeling about the whole thing."

"How do _you_ feel about the whole thing?"

"Why does it matter?" Lance's head tilted with the question.

Keith stared back at him. It was an innocently worded question with absolutely no snark.

Keith's next words came out stilted. "Because we have to work together. And live together." _And I really want to know if you're okay with this._

"Okay, but you've always been part Galra apparently, right? And we've formed Voltron how many times? You've always been a good teammate, Keith. I don't see knowing this new information changing that." He tossed another piece of space popcorn to Keith's side of the couch and watched as Keith, despite the worried look on his face, caught it with ease.

"Thirty-two, thirteen," Keith murmured as he eyed Lance. "You really think I'm a good teammate?"

"Weelll," Lance drawled out, "yeah. When you're not going off by yourself." Keith threw a piece of space popcorn at him and he almost fell off the couch trying to catch it. He picked it up off the floor and threw it in Keith's direction in retaliation. "You should lose a point for bad tosses."

Keith knocked the floor piece away with his hand and watched it land across the room, a treat for the space mice whenever they were next in this room. He chewed on his lower lip and turned back to Lance.

"Iverson kept saying the _Kerberos_ mission was due to pilot error." Keith watched Lance and knew by Lance's nod in agreement that Iverson had continued the slander even after he'd been kicked out. "I called him a liar."

"Oh," Lance said with another nod.

"And then I punched him."

Lance choked out a laugh. He felt like he should be at least a little bit surprised. Keith was always so _on task_ at the Garrison. Whether he was in class or in a flight simulator, Keith did everything perfectly. At the time of Keith's discharge from their school, it would've seemed impossible for Lance to believe that perfect Keith Kogane would've punched a superior officer.

Lance took a moment to study the small smile on Keith's face. The Garrison's golden child had irritated the hell out of him. But this Keith sitting in front of him? Lance actually knew this guy. He was brave. And brash. And acted before thinking. He let his instincts lead him in battles.

But even knowing all that, he still wasn't sure Keith would necessarily punch a rude guy in the face if it meant losing out on his chance to become a pilot. So, likely there was more to the story than that. Likely it was Keith's feelings for Shiro – Keith missing Shiro – that pushed him over the edge.

"You and Shiro were pretty close before he left, huh?"

Keith nodded. "The Garrison sent Shiro to my high school to recruit me directly," he said, thinking back to the day that Shiro had arrived and pulled him from his boring classes in order to take him out to a nice lunch to talk. "He became my mentor and - ," his voice trailed off for moment, thinking back to walking the halls of the Garrison. He'd never been any good at making friends. But Shiro had always sought him out and he had great stories about some of the smaller missions he'd gone on. Keith remembered how hard it had been when Shiro first left for Kerberos, and the pain he'd felt when they announced he was dead.

"Keith?" Lance asked. He leaned over slightly, forcing himself into Keith's vision, suddenly feeling guilty for making Keith relive whatever was making his eyes glassy.

Keith snapped back to attention. "Iverson was an ass."

Lance chuckled and leaned back into his own seat. "Yeah he was. He told me repeatedly the only reason I made it into the fighter class program was because my predecessor had a discipline issue."

Keith's stomach twisted painfully at Lance's bitter tone. It was really no wonder Lance thought they were rivals, especially with Iverson shoving him in Lance's face repeatedly.

"But, I get punching him. I mean, if Hunk had suddenly gone missing and I had to face Iverson's jerky face every day, I'd probably snap too."

"Your first reaction isn't usually to punch." Keith side-eyed Lance again and watched the smile grow on Lance's face.

"Quit hogging the space popcorn." Lance unfolded one of his legs so he could nudge Keith's knee. "I have to catch up to you."

 

* * *

 

Lance wasn't sure when they fell asleep. He knew he'd been reluctant to let the conversation die off because he didn't want Keith to leave and go off to his own room. He wanted Keith to stay here with him in this weird bubble of space they'd fallen into where all of their attention was solely for the other. And he was sure as soon as they separated this spell of understanding between them would be broken. And he just couldn't go back to that. He couldn't go back to Keith's indifference. He needed this. He needed to be someone special to Keith. Because Keith was someone special to him.

But at some point they'd clearly both lost the battle with their eyelids and had dozed off next to each other on the couch. Lance woke because he'd fallen over at an odd angle and his neck hurt. Plus, because he was sharing the couch with Keith, his legs were bent strangely and were beginning to cramp. He desperately wanted to stretch them out, but wasn't sure how to accomplish that without either stretching them in front of him on the floor, which meant half of him would be hanging off the couch uncomfortably, or getting up and going to his own bed.

Neither option sounded great. He rolled his head and let his eyes land on Keith. Keith's head was tilted at what looked like an uncomfortable angle as well, even if it was pretty cute how his bangs were currently falling over his forehead. But aside from looking absolutely adorable curled into the corner of the couch, Lance figured Keith was going to wake up hating life due to a crick in his neck and pain in his own legs. So, really, if he were to say, adjust Keith a little bit, it would be for his own good. The guy would probably even thank Lance for his consideration.

At least that's what he told himself as he reached over and tugged Keith towards him. He waited for the manhandling to wake Keith, and while Keith's eyes did flutter open, he merely regarded Lance with a sleepy expression that made Lance's insides buzz. But – bonus - sleepy Keith in no way stopped Lance from maneuvering him the way Lance wanted. And what Lance wanted was to be able to stretch himself out on the couch, while also spooning his fellow paladin.

A few shifts of their bodies later and that's exactly what he got. He had one arm wrapped tight around Keith's middle and he pulled him as close as possible back against his own chest. If he'd been more awake and coherent, he may have tried to explain their position by saying he was just trying to keep Keith from falling off the couch. But while he was sleepy and comfortable and warm, he could openly admit to himself that he just needed to have Keith pressed this tightly against him right now. At the thought, he tightened his arm once again and gave Keith another squeeze. He shifted his legs so that they were pressed as tightly up against Keith's legs as they could be. Then he shifted his face through Keith's dark hair until his nose reached the back of Keith's neck. He inhaled Keith's scent and could feel the shiver that ran through Keith when Lance's breath ran across the skin there.

One more squeeze to make sure Keith was as closely tucked into him as he could be, and Lance finally closed his eyes and let himself go back to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did you catch that amazing artwork? Please don't repost the artwork from here, but definitely head to suitboxers' site and show some love!! [suitboxer’s tumblr post with all the pictures in one fun place for chapter 1](https://suitboxers.tumblr.com/post/158285228229/the-first-set-of-art-for-reader115s-amazing)
> 
>  [My Tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/dashboard/blog/reader115)
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> [Also, here's a link back to Flickr for the 1st picture, which is kind enough to let me store my photos to be embedded in stories](https://flic.kr/p/WdYjbE)  
> [And a link back to Flickr for the 2nd picture](https://flic.kr/p/V3YSrg)  
> [Plus, a link back to Flickr for the 3rd picture](https://flic.kr/p/V17Gs1)  
> [And not to be forgotten, here's a link back to Flickr for the 4th picture](https://flic.kr/p/V3YSuH)


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The kudos, comments, and bookmarks from you guys honestly made my day - thank you! I'm so glad you're enjoying this!

"Keith, run!"

Oh, he's running alright. These alien dog creatures _do not like him_ and he's currently sprinting through this dumb alien dog-infested planet's forest trying to get away from their sharp teeth. One of them took a pretty good chunk out of his ankle earlier, but he's refusing to let the slight limp it left him with affect his speed. Or his ability to jump for a tree and begin to climb as fast as he can manage.

Red's anxious vibes were beginning to reach him and he had a sudden vision of her arching up, getting ready to tromp through the trees in his direction.

 _No, no, no, no_ , he thought and hoped she got the message. If he had to get rescued by his lion because he was being chased by space puppies, he'd never hear the end of it.

Halfway up the tree, he glanced down to make sure the dog-things couldn't climb and was relieved to see that they were stuck down on the ground. Snarling and barking and jumping, but not climbing.

"Keith! Keith, are you okay?"

"Yeah," Keith panted out, finally able to answer Lance's voice as it came to him through his helmet. "I climbed a tree." He climbed high enough to reach a branch and did his best to swing himself around so that he could try to sit on it.

" _Keith_."

Keith squeezed his eyes shut at the relief he could hear in Lance's voice. And now, stuck up in a tree with some time to kill while he had Lance's voice in his ear, he let his mind wander back to that morning when he'd woken up and immediately recognized the strong brown arm that had been wrapped tightly around his middle. He didn't remember how he'd ended up curled into Lance on one of the common room couches, but he'd slowly twisted himself onto his back so that he could see Lance's face. His movements caused Lance to tighten not only the arm he had around Keith's middle but also the leg he'd thrown over Keith's legs.

And shifting to look at Lance's face had probably been a mistake. Mainly because he'd liked what he'd seen. Sleeping Lance was _adorable_. And as much as Keith liked Lance's smiles, this trusting, relaxed face filled Keith with a sudden urge to protect Lance from anything that could disturb his rest. He'd slid one of his own hands up to rest on Lance's forearm and in response sleeping Lance nuzzled his face further into Keith's hair with a soft sigh. Keith had shivered. And then swore internally at the sensation of being cuddled like this. When was the last time he'd been cuddled? He'd remained still after that, breathing slowly, breathing in _Lance_ , for almost an hour before Lance had slowly begun to wake up himself.

Keith had braced himself for Lance's reaction to finding the two of them spooning. But as Lance's blue eyes had slowly opened and focused on Keith, his only reaction was to smile and whisper out a _good morning_ before he finally released Keith in order to stretch out his limbs with a satisfied groan. A sound that made Keith's stomach dip.

So, yeah. He'd like what he'd seen that morning. And heard. And felt. And it had only happened once but he already knew he was going to miss it.

"What the hell did you do, man?"

Lance's voice pulled him back out of his thoughts and he glanced down at the alien dogs again. Some were getting bored and leaving. A few others were staying put, presumably so they could continue to give him the stink eye.

"I – I don't know. Maybe I got too close to their home?"

He and Lance had landed on this planet earlier with the task of infiltrating an abandoned Galra base and pulling information from whatever working equipment they could find. Pidge had wanted to come as well, but Keith had a feeling it was because she wanted to see if her theory that Keith could interact with Galra tech was right. He'd only been slightly relieved when Shiro announced that only he and Lance were going to head down to the planet for this mission.

And he had been nervous as they'd stood outside the main entrance of this base. But he'd pulled one of his gloves off and glanced towards Lance who was being blessedly quiet while thoughtfully watching him. He placed his hand on the main entrance sensor panel and the two of them watched as the doors slid easily open.

"You gotta admit, that's pretty damn cool," Lance had said in a low voice, as if he could somehow tell that Keith hadn't really wanted that to work.

"At least some good has come of it," Keith muttered, doing his best not to think of the way Allura still wouldn't meet his eye.

Their previous scans of the building had indicated that there were no living beings inside, but they still moved slowly through the halls until they reached the console they needed to plug into for any leftover data. While the download was running, Keith had heard a strange noise and left Lance to silently head further down the main hallway. He peeked into the first room he came upon and found another exit, although this door had been left swinging open.

He headed towards the door and peered outside before stepping slowly into the thick forest. He wasn't sure what he was looking for as he took a few steps, but before he could turn and head back inside, his reentry was cut off by a pack of growling creatures. He'd barely had time to react as he was forced to sprint away from the base and into the forest, all while yelling into his helmet for Lance to watch out for evil alien dogs.

And now he needed to figure out a way to get the dogs to go away so he could climb down and hightail it in Red's direction. He was patting down his armor for possible secret food when a noise off to his left forced his attention in that direction.

"What the hell are you doing?" Keith asked, his tone incredulous into his helmet as he watched Lance stroll towards him through the trees. He tensed as he watched the dog-things at the base of the tree perk up at the sight of Lance. "Lance!" he finally growled when Lance didn't answer his initial question.

Lance turned his face up towards Keith and had the gall to grin at him even as the alien dogs at the base of Keith's tree were on their feet and headed towards him.

And then Keith's mouth dropped open as he watched Lance bend at the waist and greet the damn creatures with a high pitched voice and head rubs.

"Who's a good alien puppy?" Lance cooed down at the fluffy creatures who were wagging their tails at him so quickly that their entire bodies were shaking. "Do you need a belly rub? Oh, yes, you need a belly rub."

"What the actual fuck," Keith whispered before he was treated to another Lance grin as Lance heard his whisper in his own helmet.

"Can you get down from there by yourself?" Lance asked, although he kept his eyes on the adorable puppies at his feet.

Keith huffed out an indignant noise in Lance's direction, but since the base of the tree was now evil alien dog-free, he slowly began to slide down the trunk. He winced when his feet hit the ground. He was going to need some space neosporin or something for the bite on his leg when they got back in the castle.

He began limping towards Lance. "Did you get the data?"

His voice alerted the dogs to his nearing presence and they turned and snarled in his direction. Keith froze and for the first time thought about pulling his bayard and getting rid of this little pest problem, Coran's lectures about not harming the natural wildlife of a planet be damned.

Lance was admittedly surprised as well. After watching Keith sprint to safety from the creatures, he'd tentatively approached one that had stayed behind and learned that they not only looked like Earth puppies, but reacted to his high pitched advances like Earth puppies would as well. He assumed that Keith had just startled them back in the base, so he wasn't sure why the friendly creatures were once again turning on Keith.

"Lance?" Keith asked tentatively.

Lance could see the question in Keith's eyes, and then frowned when he saw the blood staining the armor around one of Keith's ankles. He rushed to Keith's side, essentially putting himself between Keith and the creatures, and dropped to one knee in order to take a closer look at the injury.

"You're still bleeding," he muttered angrily, and mentally took back the belly rubs he'd just offered the creatures who'd injured Keith. He stood upright again and eyed Keith, weighing their options for how to get Keith safely back to their lions. "Don't get mad," he said in a low voice before bending at the knees and scooping Keith up in his arms, doing his best to lift Keith's legs high enough that the dogs would really have to jump in order to bite him again.

"Wha – Lance!" Keith yelped as he was hoisted upwards. One of his arms scrambled around Lance's - _broad -_  shoulders in order to help stabilize himself.

"Yeah, I got the data," Lance said, answering Keith's earlier question as he began walking them out of the forest.

Keith glared at Lance's innocent expression, although he also glanced over Lance's shoulder and glared at the little alien creatures who were closely following while growling up in Keith's direction.

"I didn't do anything to you," Keith muttered down to the evil creatures.

"Maybe you should try talking nicely to them."

Keith turned his glare back to Lance. "You mean that baby talk you were doing before?"

"Dogs love it. You have to know how to speak their language."

Keith looked back over Lance's shoulder again at the creatures and tried not to focus on the places his body was pressed up against Lance's in this carry, which was oh so similar to the way they'd been pressed together all last night. He glanced at Lance's profile, and since Lance seemed focused on walking through the forest without tripping, Keith decided to give it a try and chance the teasing.

"Good dogs," he said over Lance's shoulder in a tone of voice higher than even he'd ever heard from himself before. Unfortunately, it was for naught as the dogs snarled up at him, one even made a jump towards his ankles again, leading him to tighten his own hold on Lance's shoulders. He glared back down at the dogs again and then waited for the laughing and teasing from Lance over the attempt. But when he dared to glance back at the blue paladin, he found Lance staring back at him with only a soft, fond smile on his face.

"Have you ever had a dog?"

Keith shook his head. "Dogs don't like me," he muttered.

Lance chuckled. "So it's not just space puppies that feel that way?"

Keith shook his head again.

"So I guess we can't bring one back as a pet for the castle, huh?"

"They'd attack me in my sleep."

"Those _babies_?" Lance said, doing his best to sound appalled as the babies in question continued to snarl up towards Keith.

"And they'd eat the mice."

Lance outright laughed at that and Keith felt warmth pool in his stomach.

He liked being the cause of that sound.

 

* * *

 

"I don't know. I still think it's pretty selfish, Keith," Hunk said, sending his best pair of wounded eyes across the room in Keith's direction.

Keith huffed out a breath and threw up his hands. "They tried to chew off my leg!"

Shiro did his best to hide his smile as he sorted through the Altean board games available in the common room.

"It looked like a minor scratch," Hunk said, jutting out his lower lip. "Lance said they were just babies. _Babies_ , Keith. We could've had a castle puppy."

Keith's eyes widened comically to the point where Lance was no longer able to contain himself and let his head fall against the back of the couch as he finally released loud chuckles.

"A minor scratch? Hunk, Coran put me in a healing pod for it!"

He was still irritated about the use of the healing pod for a dog bite, actually. But when he'd developed a high fever shortly after he and Lance had returned from their mission, the others had practically tossed him into one.

"Okay, the healing pod was for the bacteria the puppy introduced into your system with the bite, which led to a _minor infection_. It was not for the tiny scratch itself," Hunk said matter of factly.

"They weren't puppies! And how does that make bringing one of those creatures onboard okay? Weird space bacteria should make it even less appealing!" Keith replied quickly.

"That's only if they bite you," Hunk said.

"They did bite me," Keith deadpanned.

"You're about to surpass Lance's record for healing pod use by the way," Pidge added. "We need a white board with _Days Since a Paladin was in a Healing Pod_ written on it."

"And maybe a reward if we can get above a certain number," Shiro added, holding up a board game in Hunk's direction. Hunk shook his head. "Like maybe 3 or something."

Lance chuckled. "Aiming kinda high there, Shiro."

"Squad goals, Lance," Shiro replied, sending Lance, Hunk, and Pidge into such raucous laughter that they all three soon had tears running down their faces. Shiro merely frowned and exchanged a look with Keith, who was also unclear what had set them off. Although, the way Keith was watching Lance laugh, causing the red paladin's own mouth to quirk up, certainly wasn't missed by Shiro.

He considered the two of them for a moment while everyone else was distracted. Despite there being numerous couches in the room, all of which with open seating, the two of them sat unusually close – at least for them - on one couch. Lance's arm was even spread out almost protectively behind where Keith sat. And they'd managed to work very well together on their mission earlier that day, even if Keith had been bitten by the wildlife. Plus, he'd noticed far less bickering over the past few days. Really, far less bickering since they'd discovered Keith was part Galra, although he wasn't sure why that would be the catalyst for such a development.

Shiro was pleased with the change, no matter what caused it. He knew Keith's and Lance's combined strengths and weaknesses could make the pair a good team if they'd only reach the point where they'd allow such a relationship to develop. And maybe they had.

He turned away from the two in order to hold up another game towards Hunk, who finally gave him an affirmative nod.

"Alright paladins, I have special movie night juice," Coran announced as he entered the room with a tray of glasses filled to the brim with a strange pink liquid.

"Fancy, Coran." Lance's eyes lit up. There hadn't been a whole lot of variety since they arrived in space and this was _new_. "I thought you were just bringing us space juice pouches."

"This is a well kept Altean secret, Lance my boy. Juniberry juice is made following a special fermenting recipe. It's a rare treat!"

"What's the occasion?" Pidge asked, lifting her own glass and eyeing the liquid before taking a sip.

The smile that quickly spread across her face had Lance diving towards the tray of drinks. He picked up a glass and handed it to Keith before taking one for himself while Hunk and Shiro stepped forward for their own glasses. Keith accepted the glass, but then stared at Lance for a beat before he forced his eyes away. He shifted his gaze to Shiro, and then fought off a blush. Because Shiro quirked an eyebrow at him and while anyone else would think that Shiro's face was impassively innocent, Keith knew better. Shiro was smirking at him.

"I just thought it would help everyone relax as we wait for the teludav to be ready." Coran smiled as he watched all the paladins enjoy the juice specially made from a small piece of his home planet. There wouldn't be any more juniberry juice once what they had in stock was depleted. But he had decided these paladins deserved a special treat tonight. They had the biggest fight of their lives coming.

"Will Allura be joining us?" Shiro asked, noting that there wasn't an extra glass for her on the tray.

"Uh, no," Coran said, and Lance tensed when he could practically feel Coran's effort not to look in Keith's direction. "She's working with the Olkari tonight."

Shiro lowered his glass to the table where he and Hunk were setting up their game and began to stand. "Maybe I should be help -"

"No, no, Shiro. The princess was insistent that you paladins rest tonight. I'm on my way to help, anyway. You all enjoy your night off!"

Lance waved a goodbye to Coran as he left before he glanced over at Keith. Keith was looking sullen again, although he was at least sipping his space juice.

"Which movie do we have tonight, Pidge?" Lance wandered over to where Pidge sat so he could look over her shoulder. It was time to direct the group's attention to something else. Preferably one of the few movies downloaded on the laptop Pidge had thankfully had on her when they left earth. Otherwise he'd do his best to restart the Hunk versus Keith battle for a castle space puppy debate again.

Pidge plugged her laptop into the modified projector and pulled up their choices. Unfortunately, there weren't many. And they'd seen all of them already multiple times. But as far as movie choices went, it was either Pidge's movies or trying to follow along with one of the strange Altean movies. And after the last one almost made Hunk vomit in the middle of it – while shouting, " _Holy quiznack, why would they do that?!"_ to which Coran had cheerfully replied, " _Sacrificing a holcombs is a traditional step in all Altean courtships_!" - the group decided to lay off the alien movie choices for a while. Honestly, Lance still felt kind of scarred from the ordeal as well.

With the film projected on the wall in front of him, Keith settled himself into the couch cushions and half watched the movie and half watched Shiro and Hunk try to figure out the board game they'd picked. He had a feeling Pidge could read some of the directions and was deliberately not sharing with them based on the way she was grinning from where she sat beside them.

Finally, he let his eyes roam slowly over Lance where he stood next to the game table. Lance had that wide grin Keith was used to, his arms were waving widely as he spoke, and his shoulders were up and back. This was confident Lance. And confident Lance looked good.

Confident Lance also appeared to be offering ridiculous suggestions with the seemingly sole purpose of confusing their two teammates even further. Keith shouldn't think that was funny. But he did. He finished off his space juice and leaned forward to set the glass on the table, although he missed the table entirely and the glass landed on the ground and rolled away. He stared down at it in confusion. But when he tried to stand to retrieve it, he found himself wobbling so badly that he immediately fell to his ass on the ground in front of the couch.

Lance's head popped up in his direction. "Whoa, Keith, did you just fall down?" He took a step towards him but immediately wobbled, catching himself on Hunk's shoulder before he could go down as well.

Shiro frowned at the two of them, but was soon distracted when Hunk declared that the game piece he was holding was king of all other pieces and held it up above his head lion king style, which led Lance and Pidge into a fit of laughter.

Shiro chuckled as well, right up until the point that something Coran said earlier replayed in his head. He quickly glanced at his, Keith's, Lance's, and Hunk's mainly empty glasses.

"Wait, did Coran say _fermented_ juniberries?" Shiro asked.

Pidge's eyes widened as well, especially when Shiro reached over and took her glass away from her. She knew she should've drunk it faster.

"Hey!"

"No more alcohol for you, Pidge."

"I can't believe you still pull off that dad voice perfectly even when you're drunk!" Pidge protested. "I'm going to get some actual space juice then." She stood, wobbled, giggled, and sat back down. "Later. I'm going to get some space juice later."

"Wait, why would Coran give this to us if it makes us drunk?" Hunk asked, eyeing what he had left in his glass before taking another sip. "What if Voltron is needed?"

"Maybe it doesn't have the same affect on Alteans?" Shiro suggested as he swiped Hunk's newly appointed king piece. It was a pretty purple color and Shiro wondered if Allura would like it. Maybe he could present it to her as a gift? She could keep it at her station in the main control room and – wait, what the hell was he thinking? He didn't have time to be giving the princess presents. He needed to focus on Zarkon. He dropped the game piece back to the table. "Hopefully the effects will wear off quickly," he said to the others in the room.

"Hopefully? Come on, Shiro. Live a little," Lance said, swiping Pidge's glass from Shiro. He knew Shiro wouldn't knowingly drink any more of it, and he wasn't about to let it go to waste.

He made his way unsteadily back to the couches and lifted Keith from the floor before dropping him back onto the couch. Then he plopped back down on the couch next to Keith and offered him the stolen glass of juniberry juice. Keith accepted it without a word and downed the rest in one long gulp.

"That was supposed to be for us to share," Lance muttered as he settled in to watch the movie Pidge had chosen. At least he tried to focus on the movie. His head felt a little fuzzy and his long limbs were tingling in a funny way. He turned towards Keith to ask if the red paladin was feeling strange as well and found Keith staring hard at his own hands.

"Fingers are weird, right?" Keith asked, lifting one of his hands towards Lance. "I mean, we're lucky they don't get trapped in doors and shit and just snap off all the time. How do I still have all my fingers? Think about it, Lance. _Think about it_."

Lance slumped his shoulder against Keith's and stared at Keith's hands in mild concentration before he couldn't contain his laughter a moment longer.

"Your shoelace snapped in half the other day, Lance," Keith continued in a serious voice despite the fact that Lance's laughter was shaking not only his own shoulders but Keith's as well. "And its _only job_ is to keep the shoe on your foot. But fingers do so much more, Lance. And yet they don't snap under a little pressure."

Keith leaned forward and scowled at the red electrical wire Lance had stolen from Pidge to replace the broken shoelace. He suddenly hefted Lance's other foot up and into his lap and Lance squawked and nearly toppled over from the surprise of it. He could only continue to laugh, though, as he watched Keith glare down at his still intact shoelace.

"Do your job!" Keith yelled at the shoelace.

Lance chortled. He pushed his foot back down to the ground so he could lean his shoulder against Keith again.

"Oh my god, Keeeith," he wheezed. "Keith you're the best drunk space cadet I've ever seen."

"Space cadet," Keith mumbled. He repeated the words again although his eyes had zeroed in on Lance's hands and Lance offered no resistance when Keith picked one of them up and pulled it possessively towards his lap. He began to gently trace over Lance's fingers, sending shivers up Lance's arm and down his spine. "You have looong fingers," Keith murmured after a few moments.

Keith's face perked up then, as if he'd just had a brilliant idea, and Lance could almost _not wait_ to hear what new obscure thought had entered Keith's pretty head. He was prepared to laugh, and instead found himself shivering again as Keith leaned far into his personal bubble, lips practically touching Lance's ear when he spoke next.

"I bet you could reach all kinds of things, Lance."

Lance choked on the air he was breathing. Then tried to pull himself together. Because this was Keith. And surely Keith meant reach _innocent_ things.

"You mean like things on high shelves?" Lance asked, unable to resist.

Keith laughed. Just outright laughed. "No, you idiot."

There was more laughter from Keith, enough to begin to draw Shiro's and Hunks' attention towards the two of them.

"I told you," Hunk said with a sure nod, "Galra Keith is way funnier than regular Keith."

Lance only shrugged at them and hoped his face wasn't absolutely tomato red, especially considering Keith's face was still close enough that he could feel the guy's exhales on his own neck.

Thankfully the other two went back to staring down at their board game. Lance still wasn't sure what the Altean game was, but it looked like they had just decided to use the pieces and turn it into checkers. Maybe. At least the way Shiro's eye was starting to twitch after some of Hunk's moves seemed to be entertaining Pidge as she began to doze next to them.

Lance turned his attention back to drunk Keith and sucked in a breath when he was sure Keith's lips brushed against his cheek as he turned his head.

"I mean reach secret places, Lance," Keith whispered.

" _Ay por dios_ , Keith." Every single one of Lance's nerve endings tingled as a blatantly filthy image filled his head - _Keith arched against him with eyes desperate with want as Lance and his long fingers_ – how the hell was he supposed to look at his own hands after this without blushing? – _worked to bring a pretty flush to Keith's face._

"Secret places," Keith murmured again before he let his head rest on Lance's shoulder.

Lance was on fire. He could feel the heat all the way to the tips of his ears and he did his best to force his heart rate back down to normal as he listened to Keith's breathing even out. Eventually, when he was sure that Keith was asleep and he had batted his secret fantasies away before they forced him to seek out the solitude of his own bedroom, he let his own head rest on the top of Keith's unruly black hair. He let himself breathe in Keith's scent, and the familiar smell, one he had been happily wrapped up in the night before, began to lull him to sleep as well. At least until a loud crash jerked him wide awake and upright.

"Shiro!" Hunk exclaimed as he stared down at the board and pieces scattered across the floor at their feet.

"That's - unfortunate," Shiro said in a tone that implied he wasn't all that upset about their ruined game. "Castle must've bumped into something."

Hunk stared flatly back at him.

Shiro yawned widely. "Well, I think that's enough board games for me." He stood and scooped up a sleeping Pidge before turning towards the couch where Keith was currently knocked out on Lance. "I'm going to deposit Pidge in her room," he said to Lance before nodding his head in Keith's direction. "Want me to come back for him?"

"Nah, I got him," Lance said.

"Alright, then I'm headed to bed as well. Night guys."

"Night," Lance said.

"Yeah, night Shiro," Hunk said begrudgingly from where he sat kneeling on the ground picking up game pieces. With the game returned to the box, he stood and stretched with his own yawn. "Want me to carry him back to his room?"

Lance shook his head and fought off a frown for Hunk's sake. Why was everyone trying to carry Keith off?

"You sure? He's deceptively heavier than he looks. Muscle bulk or something," Hunk said as he headed past the couch.

Yes, Lance was fully aware that Keith was covered in muscle. Dammit Hunk.

"I carried him earlier today."

"Oh, right. The space puppies," Hunk said with another laugh as he continued out of the room. "Kay. Night buddy."

"Night Hunk."

Lance stretched his legs out in front of him, his lips quirking up as he eyed the shoe with the broken shoelace. The game board crash had woken him completely and he figured he better get him and Keith to bed while he still had a mind to do so. He edged himself out from under Keith and stood slowly, testing out his legs and balance. Then he leaned down and wrapped one of Keith's arms around his neck before sliding an arm under his legs in order to pick him up, similar to how he'd carried him earlier that very day. But Keith's eyes opened as he was lifted and he immediately asked Lance what he was doing.

"Bedtime," Lance answered, doing his best not to be at all awkward as he stood holding Keith. It made sense to carry Keith on a strange planet when the strange planet wildlife was trying to maul Keith. Standing with Keith in his arms in the middle of the castle's common room didn't hold the same level of urgency.

"I can walk," Keith said.

"Sure, yes, of course you can." Lance set Keith down on his feet and let go of him.

Keith tottered before his ass landed on the couch again.

Lance laughed.

Keith glowered at him.

Lance bent towards Keith once again, waited for Keith to wrap his arm back around his neck, and then pulled Keith to his feet.

"Just use your feet and I'll handle the rest," Lance said with another laugh as they headed down the hallway.

"Why aren't you wobbly?"

"Maybe it's because you didn't share Pidge's share with me."

"I didn't know you wanted to share."

"Although honestly it's probably because I'm taller than you. I bet it takes way more alcohol to get me drunk whereas you're just a tiny, adorable lightweight."

"Pff. You're barely taller than me."

"Actually, are you okay walking like this with your arm _all the way up here_ around my shoulders?" Lance looked dramatically down towards Keith's feet. "Are you up on your tiptoes?"

Keith tightened the arm around Lance's shoulders until his elbow was attempting to strangle Lance's neck.

"Okay, I give up you jerk!" Lance said, pulling at Keith's elbow with one hand and poking him in the side with the other.

Keith stopped trying to actively strangle him and froze to just glare down at Lance in the headlock. Lance took the pause as an opportunity to open his mouth again.

"Although, seriously dude, if you wanted me to hunch you just had to ask."

Lance yelped as Keith's elbow tightened again.

"You're the worst," Keith said before he finally loosened his arm and sent Lance a self satisfied smirk.

Lance adjusted Keith's arm around his shoulders once more and glared at him before they began moving again. They walked in silence for only a moment before Keith piped up with his newest thought.

"Galra can't be space cadets, Lance. They'd never let Galra into the Garrison."

"I doubt many apply for Earth's Garrison program, man."

"You keep calling me a space cadet. But I can't be. I'm Galra Keith now."

"You're not Galra Keith. You're just Keith." He pushed the button for Keith's door and waited for it to slide open before moving them into the room. He let Keith fall into a sitting position on his bed.

"Just Keith."

"No, not – not _just_ Keith," Lance kneeled in front of him and pulled Keith's boots off before meeting Keith's eyes. Keith's purple irises looked almost black in the darkened room and they were focused solely on him. " _Keith_ ," Lance repeated with emphasis.

"Lance," Keith whispered back.

Lance chewed on his bottom lip for a moment. There was more he wanted to say to Keith about how he didn't give a flying flip that Keith was part Galra. How it didn't change how he saw Keith. Didn't change who Keith was to the team. But he was pretty sure he'd be wasting his breath on the bleary eyed Keith in front of him.

So he tipped drunk Keith onto his side. Keith's head landed on his pillow, black hair fanning out around him. And when Lance pulled the blanket over him, Keith's eyes closed automatically with a content sigh. He flipped over to his side with his back to Lance and Lance stared incredulously at a Keith who appeared to be instantly asleep.

Lance turned away, but stopped and glanced back at Keith as he thought about Keith's Garrison comments. He'd been so jealous of Keith at the Garrison. Perfect flight simulator fighter pilot Keith with his dumb hair and grumpy faces. The only kid in their class who Shiro paid any attention to. Keith who aced exams without breaking a sweat. Keith who had clearly never noticed Lance, despite Lance's wish that he could've captured Keith's attention.

Lance still remembered his victory dance and his shout of " _Hasta la later, Keith_!" when he found out he was promoted to the fighter pilot program. He'd gotten everything he'd ever wanted. All at Keith Kogane's expense. 

"I missed you," Lance whispered to Keith's sleeping form. "When you left the Garrison, I missed you."

"I missed you too, cargo pilot," Keith murmured. "I liked listening to your laugh in physics."

Lance's eyes widened and he bit back a gasp. That was _specific_. A specific detail about their time together at the Garrison. Did Keith remember him? Had Keith actually noticed him?

"My favorite sound," Keith whispered as he finally dozed off.

" _Keith_." Lance continued to stare down at him. He couldn't just say things like and go to sleep!

The jerk was definitely asleep though. Lance remembered how well he'd slept last night wrapped around Keith. He wanted to do that again. But no way was he climbing into drunk Keith's bed without his permission. So he turned and made his way down to his own bed. And didn't get a single minute of sleep that night as Keith's words replayed in his head.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please don't repost the artwork from here, but definitely head to suitboxers' site and show some love!!  
> [suitboxers’ Tumblr with both pics from chapter 2 in one fun place](https://suitboxers.tumblr.com/post/158309880744/arts-for-chapter-2-of-reader115s-amazing-fic)
> 
> [Also, here's a link back to Flickr for the 1st picture, which is kind enough to let me store my photos to be embedded in stories](https://flic.kr/p/V17GwE)   
>  [And a link back to Flickr for the 2nd picture](https://flic.kr/p/V17GxS)   
> 


	3. Chapter 3

Despite being space wasted the night before, Keith still pounded on Lance's door the next morning, insisting that Lance join him for some _quick training before breakfast_.

"Get your ass up, Lance," Keith's voice insisted through his door. "This'll help get this shit out of our systems."

Lance had simply stared at his door for a few moments without answering. Keith coming to him like this surely meant that Keith didn't remember a damn thing he'd said to Lance the night before. _And isn't that just peachy_? he thought sarcastically. What was he supposed to do with this information on his own?

When he finally swung on some pants and opened the door, he noted that Keith at least had the good decency to look slightly hung over. Very, very slightly. As in his skin looked a little paler than normal. And, well, that was about it. His purple eyes were shining brightly, without even a hint of dark smudges under them, his posture was straight and perfect, and his hair had been pulled into a small ponytail, depriving Lance the chance to see him looking morning-after-outright-bedhead-ridiculous.

Additionally, Lance was also not too tired to notice that Keith's hair in a ponytail was extremely unfair. How was he supposed to keep up his dislike of Keith's mullet if it had the capability to look that good when pulled back?

"You look like shit," Keith said.

Yes, Lance knew. His hair was sticking up at odd angles. He had dark circles from lack of sleep. And he was doing his best just to stand upright.

Still, Lance preferred a Keith who came looking for him to hang out, even if it was just to head down to the training deck. So he pushed past Keith with a low sarcastic grumble of " _Thanks, dude_ " and headed down the hall in that direction.

They didn't say much on the way there and Keith briefly wondered if Lance being unusually quiet was purely due to his hangover, since Lance looked like he hadn't gotten much sleep last night. Not that he thought Lance had been that drunk the night before, in fact Keith vaguely recalled requiring Lance's help to get back to his own room for bed. Either way, Lance was clearly feeling the after-effects this morning.

Keith activated the lights as they entered the training room and they began with some hand to hand grappling. Lance grumbled for the first twenty minutes or so, but as his muscles warmed up, the somewhat familiar routine with Keith was actually making him feel better. Even with Keith tossing him across the room a couple times, he could feel his mood lifting. He even grinned up at Keith the next time Keith pinned him to the ground.

Keith smirked down at him from where he sat straddling Lance's hips. "Want to switch to the drone simulator?"

"Giving up, Keithy?"

"I'm currently the one sitting on you, Lance."

Lance chuckled and twisted his hips, sending Keith to the ground next to him.

"Fine, let's go."

Keith led the way to the drone platform and sent a small wave up to Coran and Shiro when he spotted them up in the control room.

Lance hopped onto the platform with him and chuckled as he said, "Release the baby!"

At Keith's confused look, Lance continued, "You know, the caveman movie?" He repeated " _Release the baby!"_ in his best Nicholas Cage voice and laughed again when Keith still looked confused. "I'm making you watch just so, _so_ many movies when we get home, Keith."

Keith froze at that. It wasn't that he thought that they'd never make it back to Earth. But Lance had a huge family waiting for him back there. And when they did manage to return to their home planet, Keith certainly hadn't envisioned Lance necessarily wanting to see him again, let alone hang out for fun.

His thoughts were interrupted as Lance finally directed the simulator to " _Release the drones_ " and the small drones dropped from the ceiling, forcing Keith to focus and activate his shield. He pressed his back against Lance's and, due to his close-range weapon, focused on providing coverage for the two of them while Lance activated his bayard.

"Come on sharpshooter, show me what you got."

Lance flushed lightly at Keith's words and a genuine smile crossed his face. He aimed his rifle for the drones as their circling speed increased and began taking them out one by one, trusting Keith to cover him as he let his eyes focus only on his targets. He and Keith worked seamlessly as they moved around each other. He'd swear that feeling Keith's body against his own as they worked helped his focus as he repeatedly aimed and hit the drones that dared to attack them.

Lance's grin grew even wider as he took down the final drone. This was possibly a new record for the two of them in regards to time and he turned to Keith, ready to celebrate their success.

But just at that moment, Keith fell to his knees with a yelp as his hands flew to cover his ears.

Lance froze in shock. There was no way that last drone had hit Keith. He'd taken it out before it had a chance. Plus, the floor below Keith wasn't opening to swallow Keith whole. And while Keith was still covering his ears as if trying to block out a sound, Lance couldn't hear a damn thing.

Other than suddenly feeling Lance's hands on him, one gripping his shoulder and one curled around the back of his neck, it was hard for Keith to know what happened after that.

 

* * *

 

When Keith stumbled out of a healing pod, he fell directly into Lance, who caught him easily and pulled him close. Keith was disoriented but he still instinctually curled into Lance's chest. He could almost still feel the shrill, piercing sound that had hit him like a spike to the ears on the training deck. He shuddered at the thought and Lance tightened his arms around Keith in response as his mouth turned down into a frown.

"What was that?" Keith finally whispered out.

"A weapon Pidge and Hunk have been working on together," Lance whispered back. "It emits ultrasonic sound blasts that they were hoping would incapacitate an enemy."

"It works," Keith whispered again. He pushed himself up to stand on his own feet instead of leaning against Lance, and then regretted it as he felt Lance's arms fall from him and he was left feeling cold as he stood alone. He glanced around the room and was surprised to find only Coran in the room with them.

"Shiro thought it would be better if we weren't all in here when you came out of the pod," Lance said in quick explanation, voice still lowered.

"You pull the short straw?"

Half of Lance's mouth quirked up in a grin that didn't reach his eyes, but he didn't respond further. Keith took a moment to look Lance over. He was pretty sure those weren't the clothes Lance had worn for their early morning training session. And Lance looked – tired. Really, really tired.

"Why wouldn't he want everyone here?" Keith asked in a continued low voice as he couldn't help but wonder at the strange treatment. He thought they were all a team. And part of that involved group gatherings when someone came out of a healing pod. Maybe his being Galra had changed that more than he thought. "And why was I even in the pod?"

"I'm afraid that little sound blast ruptured both of your eardrums," Coran stated simply in his own lowered voice as he approached Keith and indicated that Keith should hold still as he used a handheld scanner to review both ears.

 _Ruptured eardrums_? Keith's widened eyes shot to Lance's face and he watched as Lance leaned towards Coran so he could also read the output on the tiny scanner.

Then Lance grinned and exhaled a loud, "Whooo, okay, I can stop whispering now. Looks like your ears are all repaired."

"Shiro was worried having everyone in here would be too loud for you," Coran added in his own normal voice.

Relief surged through Keith. No special treatment due to Galra heritage after all. Shiro was just being his normal, considerate self.

"So Shiro wanted to keep things quiet for me and he chose two of the loudest members of the team to be here when I woke up?"

Lance's mouth dropped open in outrage, a look that Keith could now read as theatrical instead of literal, and Keith couldn't help but smile.

"You're being funny again," Lance said, sending Keith a look of mock irritation for teasing him. Although he honestly preferred this. He'd definitely take a joking, healthy Keith over a wrapped in a ball on the ground, crying out in pain Keith.

Then Keith's eyebrows knit together. "Wait, were your ears okay?"

Lance nodded quickly, but the way he was biting his lower lip was causing an unease to rise up in Keith.

"Yep, no damage here."

"Why?" Keith asked, although he was pretty sure he didn't want to know the answer.

"Because it was set at a frequency that would only harm a Galra," Coran added cheerfully. "Really cool stuff, uh, with the obvious exception." Coran held out a water pouch with a small expression of remorse.

Keith didn't see it though, as he was suddenly too busy staring down at the ground. So Lance took the water pouch with a nod to Coran who gave Keith a quick pat on the shoulder before he quickly exited the room.

"Let's go get you something to eat," Lance said, tugging on Keith's shoulder to lead him out of the room. He finally got him to take the water pouch and led the way to the dining hall.

"Keith!" Shiro said as soon as they entered. He rose from the table and gave his friend a hug. "Ears recovered?" he asked as he pulled away.

"Yeah," Keith said with a nod. "No worries."

"Great. Here, sit down. I'll get you something to eat. Lance, why don't you let the others know that Keith is out of the pod?"

Keith glanced at Lance from the corner of his eye. Lance looked like he wanted to protest, and Keith wouldn't have minded if he had. He was feeling a fairly strong pull to the blue paladin, maybe due to the increased amount of time they'd spent together recently, and he wondered if Lance was feeling the same. But Shiro was already filling a bowl with food goo for Keith, so Lance muttered that he'd be right back, and turned to hunt for the others.

"Has everything been okay?" Keith asked when Shiro returned to his side and took the seat next to him. "No attacks or anything? Is the teludav ready? Have I been holding up our plan?"

"Okay, one, cool it or Coran will whip out the fermented juniberry juice again."

"Wait, so he knew -"

Shiro laughed. "Oh yeah. I confronted him about it the next day and that whole deal was definitely a night of forced down time for the team."

"Sneaky." Keith took a bite of goo and chewed before his eyes shot back to Shiro. "You said you talked to Coran the next day? But Hunk and Pidge were testing their weapon _the_ _next day,_ Shiro. How many days have I been in the pod?"

"Apparently rebuilding entire eardrums takes about 2 days in the pod."

"Two days!" He'd assumed it'd been a few hours. Eardrums were tiny, after all! He turned back to Shiro. "Did you send Lance in to be there when I woke up?"

Shiro huffed out a small laugh and scratched the side of his face. "No. We actually had to force Lance out of there a couple times. Make him eat food and go sleep somewhere that wasn't the floor in front of your pod." Shiro watched Keith stir his spoon in his food goo as a red flush began to climb up his neck. "Is there anything going on with you two that you want to talk about?"

Keith stared harder at his food goo. What _was_ going on with them? They were becoming friends, right? It definitely felt like more than just teammates learning how to tolerate each other. But, it also kind of felt like more than just friends too. Why would Lance sit outside his pod for two days? He figured Lance was closest to Hunk on the ship, and yet he couldn't picture Lance sitting outside Hunk's healing pod over a pair of busted eardrums.

All Keith knew right now was that he liked it. Whatever was going on between him and Lance. He wanted more of it. He even wished Lance was back already from fetching the others.

"I – I don't know what to say, Shiro," he said honestly, meeting his friend's eyes again.

"Okay," Shiro said with an easy smile. He'd sent Lance off on purpose so he could get a chance to speak with Keith alone and at least now Keith knew he could come to him if he wanted someone to talk to. "I'm certainly okay with anything that has you two working so well together. Coran and I were impressed with your teamwork on the drone simulator right before the incident. We'd even begun talking about setting it at a more advanced training level for you two."

"Next time," Keith said with a certain level of excitement at the thought of not only advancing, but advancing with Lance.

"And you're sure your ears are okay?"

Keith nodded, although his shoulders slumped a little and his face soured as he remembered it was the Galra genes running through him that had been the cause of the injury.

"Well, at this rate, we're never going to make it to our three day goal of having no one require a healing pod," Shiro said with a smirk.

"This one wasn't my fault," Keith said, grateful to Shiro for lightening the mood.

Shiro leaned his elbows forward on the table so he could lean in closer to Keith. "Yeah, uh, speaking of fault, Hunk and Pidge have been feeling pretty terrible for their part in this."

"They shouldn't," Keith said around another bite of food goo. "It's not their fault I'm part Galra."

"They still need to take into consideration how their inventions against Zarkon's army can affect you."

Keith groaned and then leaned over to elbow Shiro in the side. "You didn't dad lecture them, did you?"

Shiro laughed. "It was a very short conversation!" He swiped at Keith's pokey elbow and pulled the offending arm away, forcing Keith to twist in his seat and use his free hand to try to bat Shiro away.

"Hey, he just got out of a healing pod!" Lance's voice, laced with an unusual irritation, interrupted their play grappling and Shiro released Keith's captured arm with a grin and a shove against his shoulder as he stood from the table.

Keith still tried to shove back at Shiro, but he smoothly evaded Keith's swinging arm as he walked away from the table.

"Good to have you awake again, bud," Shiro called over his shoulder. "I'll let the princess know you're recovered. We may head out in our lions for some practice drills in a couple hours."

Keith was nodding in response as Shiro left the room, but he was also currently completely distracted by something being draped around him. He turned away from Shiro and found Lance dropping his jacket over his shoulders.

"I'm always kind of cold for a while when I come out of the healing pods," Lance said in quick explanation as he avoided looking directly at Keith's face, but adjusted the jacket a little more so it wouldn't fall off Keith's shoulders. He was pleased when Keith didn't scoff at the offering, but instead just leaned forward in his seat to accommodate the placement. "Anyway, Hunk and Pidge are on their way. They needed to shut some stuff down."

"Shiro said you camped out near my pod the past two days," Keith said abruptly as he was faced with Lance's tired eyes again. "You really didn't have to do that. This wasn't, you know, life threatening or anything." Keith tugged at the front of Lance's jacket. It was actually just as soft as he'd almost imagined it to be.

Lance slid into the seat next to him and shot him a flat look. How could he explain how worried he'd been about the dumb jerk? There was something about seeing Keith in that much pain that had clawed at his own insides. And the worst part was that they hadn't even known what was hurting Keith at first, which meant no conceivable way to stop it. The only comfort Lance could provide, seeing as how additional noise would not have been welcomed – even if they were going to be words of comfort - was to keep his hands wrapped around Keith, doing his best to let Keith know he was there, until Keith had eventually passed out from the pain.

Thankfully, Coran's scan of the castle pinpointed where the ultrasonic sound blasts were originating. Although Hunk and Pidge had been halfway across the castle testing that damn thing out, meaning it had taken Shiro what seemed like forever to find them and make them turn it the fuck off. At Coran's direction, Lance had carried Keith to the med bay and helped seal Keith into a healing pod, which had begun its magic even before the ruptured eardrums had even been diagnosed.

And Lance was left reflecting on the fact that carrying an injured but conscious Keith was _so very much different_ than carrying an injured and unconscious Keith. Without purple eyes open and looking at Lance, Keith's dead weight had been so much heavier. Plus, the way his face had been slack – Lance could shudder now thinking about it.

"But, thanks," Keith continued, lifting his eyes to meet Lance's bright blue eyes as he tugged the jacket around himself again. "Thanks for watching over me anyway."

He hadn't put his arms through the sleeves yet, mainly because right now it felt like being wrapped in a Lance-scented blanket. He was beginning to get visions of the two of them curled together on the couch a few nights ago and he found himself yearning for that again, especially with how tired he was feeling. But - and this thought occurred to him even though he wasn't a friendship expert - he was pretty sure it would be strange to ask Lance to come back to his room right now just to spoon with him.

Although, Lance looked tired too, so – Keith shook his head. He'd excuse himself for a nap as soon as he got a chance to see Hunk and Pidge. A nap alone. A solo nap. And maybe Lance wouldn't notice if he kept the jacket. Just for the length of the nap. He'd give it back later today. Probably. Definitely by tomorrow. Night.

"You need someone to watch over you," Lance murmured and did his best to smile. "You're not having very good luck lately."

Keith offered a half shrug at that and kept his eyes on Lance's face as he surprised Lance with a real smile. "It hasn't been all terrible. The good stuff is kinda drowning out the bad for once."

Lance's entire focus became the dimple-filled smile he was being treated to, at least until he saw a spark light up Keith's pretty eyes. Keith licked his lips and Lance's gaze was drawn down to them for a split second before he met Keith's eyes again and asked, "What kind of good stuff?"

"Keith, oh man, I'm so sorry!" Hunk said as he rounded the doorframe, clearly out of breath from his near sprint to reach the kitchen.

" _We're_ sorry," Pidge added as she scooted around Hunk and rushed to Keith's side, doing her best to beat Hunk to him.

That was fine with Hunk, actually, because he was still perfectly able to lift Keith into a hug even if Pidge's tiny arms were already there. Lance had to laugh, because even though Keith went stiff for the first few seconds of the hug, he eventually rolled his eyes and relaxed under both sets of arms currently wrapped around him. Lance jumped up from his own seat then and let his own long arms join in. He even tightened around Pidge a little when she tried to break free. If Keith was allowing this group hug, they were all staying, dammit.

"Uh, how– how long do these things usually last?" Keith eventually asked.

"Shh, shhh," Hunk murmured. "Apology hugs take a little longer, Keith."

"You really don't have to apologi -"

His words were cut off as one of Hunk's arms tightened around his ribs, knocking the breath out of him.

"Okay, okay," he grumbled a few moments later when he had enough air to do so.

Lance chuckled and when Keith turned his head to meet Lance's eyes over Pidge's head, Lance didn't hesitate to smile brightly at the other boy, especially when he saw a spark light up in Keith's eyes aimed back at him.

And dammit, Lance knew then that he was gone. Done. Sold. Had honestly always been so in regards to Keith. Always. Even way back at the Garrison. But especially now. Right this fucking minute as Keith smiled at him in the middle of the group hug that was probably squeezing the daylights out of him.

"Alright," Hunk said, releasing the group hug and allowing Keith enough space to be allowed to slump back down in his chair again. "Apology hug is only the first step in my attempt to get you to forgive me and Pidge."

Keith ran a hand through his hair nervously. "Guys, honestly, you don't need to be forgiven -,"

"So you're refusing to accept our apology?" Hunk asked and Lance fought with his own lips to keep them from smirking when he spotted Hunk's eyes begin to water. Keith would be no match against the big guy's tears.

"No – yes – I mean, you didn't do anything _intentional_." Keith's own eyes began to widen as he realized he was about to be the cause of Hunk tears.

Oh, so he was part Galra? The alien species intent on universal domination who wiped out entire planets and populations? No problem. The team didn't seem to have an issue.

Be the reason Hunk cried? They'd probably throw him out an air lock.

"Okay, can I just say that – that you're forgiven and that be the end of this?"

Pidge smirked and shook her head slowly at Keith from where she had seated herself across the table.

"So," Hunk said, also taking that to mean that Keith was accepting of the continued apology ritual. His eyes were dry again as he smiled at Keith. "Step two -"

"How many steps are there?"

"I've been experimenting with the food goo and I think I managed to create space jelly!"

Keith closed his mouth against further protests. "Jelly?"

"Don't move!" Hunk said, excusing himself to the kitchen.

"I really am sorry, Keith," Pidge said when Hunk was gone.

"Not you too, Pidge," Keith said, slumping back down in his seat.

"No, Shiro was right. I don't know why we didn't think about this having an effect on you. It won't happen again."

"I'm sorry Shiro lectured you about it," Keith said with a small smirk of his own. "And that you won't be able to use the weapon."

Pidge waved her hand at him dismissively about the Shiro lecture but scooted up in her seat so she could rest her elbows on the table. "Actually, we think we can still keep the weapon -"

"Pidge!" Lance said immediately, leaning up in his own seat. He'd been daydreaming about space jelly and letting Pidge have her own moment to apologize to Keith. But at Pidge's words he was struck with an image of Keith yelping in pain on the floor.

Keith could practically feel Lance tense up next to him and it kept him from having his own reaction as he watched Lance's face twist as if he was in pain himself.

"We're working on a way to localize the blasts," Pidge said, slowly as he she watched Lance as well. "So we choose where the blasts are specifically sent."

Hunk entered the room at that moment with a tray he dramatically placed on the table. "Oh, yeah," he said, jumping into the conversation. "As long as we don't aim it at Keith, it should be fine."

" _Should be_?" Lance asked, a mixture of skepticism and anger clearly written all over his face. "You're not testing it out near him to see if it works!"

"No, of course not," Hunk replied slowly as he shot a bewildered look in Lance's direction before he turned back to Keith. "Okay, so those terrible biscuit things Coran makes? I finally managed to heat them at just the right temperature to soften them -"

"No more broken teeth," Pidge muttered.

"And they're pretty good now with the addition of my new space jelly." He waved his hand over the plate to indicate Keith should try one.

With the offer, Keith finally slid his arms through the sleeves of Lance's jacket so he could pick up one of the warm and admittedly softer biscuits. He took a bite and immediately closed his eyes, unable to keep a small grin from his face. It was like having an honest to goodness freshly-made Earth biscuit with grape jelly.

"I think I may only eat these from now on," he murmured around the bite.

Hunk's face lit up. "Oh good, so apology step two is a success."

Keith took another bite and let out a happy sigh as he continued to chew.

"You okay, Lance?" Hunk asked with a tilt of his head. His friend's face was red. Like really red. Hunk thought about crossing the room to check his temperature.

 _Yes, fine_ , Lance thought although didn't manage to say. He was fine. This was totally okay. He just hadn't been expecting to have such a strong reaction to seeing Keith actually wearing his jacket. He looked – he looked hot. And cuddly at the same time. Was that a thing? Hot and cuddly? Yes. It must be a thing because Keith was the embodiment of both hot and cuddly right here next to him. _Holy shit_. Plus, Keith kept having to push up the jacket sleeves a bit because they were too long on him and he was trying not to get food on the cuffs and _why was that so adorable_? Plus, to make matters worse – or better? – Keith's look of utter contentment and soft sighs were doing _things_ to Lance's stomach. Making it feel kind of flippy.

But, yeah, he was totally fine. This was fine.

"Are you going to try one, dude?" Hunk said, still studying Lance's face.

Now that Keith had had the first bite of their new treat, Pidge picked up a biscuit and happily began eating one as well while her eyes traveled back and forth between Lance and Keith. She'd wondered why Lance had been stationed outside Keith's pod the past two days, although she'd been feeling too guilty herself to ask Lance about it. But now that Keith was fine, if Lance was going to continue acting strangely, all bets were off.

Keith turned to Lance. "You haven't had any?"

"Nope, we were waiting for you before we tried them out," Hunk answered as he scooped up a biscuit as well.

Keith tilted his head at Lance. Lance was clearly blushing. The red had traveled all the way up to the tips of his ears. And he was staring at Keith. And clearly not listening to a thing anyone around him was saying.

" _Lance_ ," Keith said sharply, which finally earned him focused eye contact from the other paladin. "Eat a biscuit."

"Yes, right. A biscuit."

Lance forcibly turned himself away from Keith in order to take one from the tray just as Keith was reaching for a second.

"Holy quiznack, this is good," Lance said around his own mouthful. He slumped back in his chair and let his own eyes close, suddenly seeing the appeal of closing off some of his other senses in order to enjoy something that tasted like home.

Keith nodded in agreement. "Hunk, I'm about ready to propose marriage."

Hunk snorted while Pidge and Lance broke out into loud chuckles.

"That's a tempting offer, Keith, but I'm still kind of figuring things out with Shay and I'm really a one alien kind of guy."

"You let me know if that changes," Keith said smoothly while pointing a finger gun – something he'd admittedly learned from Lance – in Hunk's direction.

"Oh my god," Hunk managed between his laughter. He nudged Pidge hard enough that she almost fell out of her chair and she elbowed him back in retaliation through her own giggles. "I told you Galra Keith is funny!"

Lance had been chuckling but stopped at Hunk's most recent comment. "Not Galra Keith, Hunk," he said, keeping the smile on his face so he wouldn't kill the happy mood in the room. " _Keith_ is funny."

"Right, right, Keith is funny," Hunk said easily. "Although, I'm totally blaming you for corrupting him with finger guns, Lance."

Having finished his second biscuit, Keith leaned back in his chair and stuffed his hands into Lance's jacket pockets so he could tuck himself further into the warmth as he relaxed. He side-eyed Lance as Lance's most recent words began to replay in his head. They sounded familiar, but he couldn't quite place them. _Not Galra Keith_. The others continued to joke around him and he did his best to appear to be paying attention.

_You're not Galra Keith. Just Keith._

_I missed you. When you left the Garrison, I missed you._

Lance's voice saying those words rolled around in his head. And Keith didn't think Lance meant he missed their supposed rivalry when Keith was kicked out, either. Keith had spent months alone in his desert shack and while he was comfortable in his solitude for the most part, he could still feel the pain of not only missing Shiro, but also the daily niggling reminder in his chest that he also missed this boy who was sitting next to him now.

Fate reuniting them all to fight for the universe's freedom from a maniacal ruler may not have been something any of them had asked for, but Keith knew now that he would be forever grateful for this second chance to have Lance in his life.

Keith pulled himself out of his own thoughts and turned his head properly to watch Lance. He was finished with his own second biscuit by now, smiling and flailing his long arms while enthusiastically saying something in Hunk's direction.

"- is a _must_ and how dare you suggest otherwise!"

"Fine, Lance," Hunk responded with a roll of his eyes. "You're absolutely right."

"I'm going to embroider that on a pillow for you," Lance said triumphantly, choosing to ignore Hunk's sarcasm.

Keith watched Hunk and Pidge grin fondly back at Lance and he wondered again how Lance could have ever questioned his importance on this team. Didn't Lance see the _life_ he brought into a room with him?

When Lance glanced his way, Keith smiled and then had the pleasure of watching Lance's features soften right in front of him. He was currently feeling warm and soft limbed and yawned as he thought about how comfortable his bed would be after the stiffness that came with multiple days in a healing pod. He thought about excusing himself but froze at the sight of Allura and Shiro entering the dining hall.

An odd silence fell over the other paladins as well when the two of them approached the group. Allura let one of her hands fall to the table as she eyed Keith. She stood silent for a moment until Shiro cleared his throat behind her.

"Keith," she finally said. "Shiro tells me you are fully recovered. I am – glad to hear it."

Keith had to acknowledge that the princess had actually made an effort to come to him. And he could hear the words she was saying, which should be filling him with relief. But Keith's chest felt tight because her eyes still sent a world of mistrust and anger in his direction. He wondered if Shiro had used his dad voice on her as well to get her in here.

"Thank you, princess," he responded. He didn't want his own Shiro lecture about manners later. He waited for her to take her eyes off of him before he slumped back in his seat.

Allura removed her hand from the table and took a step back. "According to the Olkari, the construction of the teludav is going smoothly. Thankfully, there haven't been any Galra ships on our radar, so it appears that we continue to be well hidden here. I expect all of you back to the normal training routine tomorrow, but also be sure to get plenty of rest in between."

The rest of the team nodded in agreement before she turned to leave. Lance watched Shiro shoot Keith an encouraging look as he leaned over the table to grab a biscuit before following her out.

"You know its not _you_ she's upset with, right?" Lance asked quietly next to him.

Keith rubbed at his eyes and ran a hand through his hair. "I think I need to lie down," he mumbled. He stood from the table but paused to try to offer what he hoped was a grateful look to Hunk and Pidge. "Thanks again, guys," he offered sincerely.

They both nodded in return, although a somber mood had obviously settled over everyone in the room.

Keith turned to Lance. "I'm, uh, still kinda cold. But if you come with me, I'll give you your jacket back as soon as I can change into mine."

"Sure," Lance said, jumping up out of his own seat, immediately grateful to Keith for coming up with an excuse for him to follow him out of the room.

They walked in silence back to Keith's room and when his doors slid open, Lance easily entered the space behind Keith and then waited only long enough for the doors to close again before opening his mouth.

"I know Hunk says Allura just needs time to process all this, but I really don't think that's a good enough excuse for her to be rude to you." Lance watched Keith tug his jacket closer to himself, as if he had no intention of taking it off. "I mean, not to be all Debbie Downer, but we don't exactly know how much time we have, right?" Lance ran a hand through his own hair. "We're about to go up against the big bad guy himself, and - ,"

"Lance, I'm – I'm actually pretty tired," Keith said, cutting him off. He appreciated the effort, but between the healing pod after-effects and Allura's cold gaze, he desperately just wanted to close his eyes and not think about anything for a little while.

Lance immediately felt uneasy as he glanced between the door and Keith. He'd just spent two days watching over an unconscious Keith, and yet, somehow this would be worse? Because he'd be stuck on the other side of the door where he couldn't see him anymore.

"You look like you've been missing out on your beauty sleep." Keith eyed Lance. His instincts told him Lance didn't want to leave, giving him the courage to continue. "You want to take a nap with me?"

Lance's speedy nod almost made his head hurt. "Yeah, yes. Let's do that. I'll make sure you sleep and you make sure I sleep and it'll be like teamwork or something." He didn't know what he was rambling. He just knew he was kicking off his shoes and climbing into bed – _Keith's bed_ – even before Keith had made a move towards it.

Keith climbed in after him and settled on his back, infinitely grateful for his comfortable pillow.

"You gonna sleep in my jacket?"

Keith's eyes slid shut and he nodded. He was happy to be in his own space. And happy that he'd managed to keep Lance here with him. "It smells like you."

Lance's eyes widened. "And that's a – a good thing?" He watched Keith shift onto his side so that he was now facing Lance, although his eyes were still shut. He looked too adorable for words cuddled in Lance's jacket with his head resting on his pillow.

Keith sniffed, as if breathing in Lance's scent from the jacket material. "Yeah."

Lance's mouth dropped open. Tired or not, he wasn't about to let the jerk say something monumental like that and fall asleep on him again. He scooted himself towards Keith, removing the space between them, and said, "Come here," while wrapping an arm around Keith's back to pull his closer.

Keith's eyes fluttered open but he went willingly closer to Lance and even ducked his head so that his face could fit in the crook of Lance's neck. Keith's own hand tentatively reached out and landed on Lance's hip and Lance heard him inhale purposefully again.

"This is better," Keith murmured and felt Lance's arm squeeze him tighter. "You come up with really great plans, Lance."

"You better not be messing with me right now," Lance said. Keith's face moved out his neck and Lance tried to read his expression. This was still unfamiliar ground for both of them and he wondered if Keith had suddenly decided that picking at him would be more fun. "Because I - "

Kissing. Keith was kissing him. Soft lips were definitely pressing insistently against his own mouth and _holy shit Keith was actually kissing him right now_.

Lance squeezed him impossibly closer as his own lips began to respond. And when Keith's lips parted, he didn't waste his first opportunity to push his tongue into Keith's mouth. There was a small groan from Keith that made Lance feel dizzy.

Lance broke the kiss without meaning to, but with his mouth suddenly free, he couldn't stop his thoughts from spilling out.

"Oh god, this is happening. You're kissing me."

"I'm trying to," Keith whispered with a smirk.

Keith's hand moved from Lance's hip up to the back of his neck so that he could pull Lance's mouth back into another kiss. Lance moaned into it this time and while he focused on the kiss – Keith's lips moving against his own was sending a tingling sensation through his entire body – he also began to focus on getting his hands on more of Keith. He released the tight hold he had on Keith just so he could slide his hand up under his own jacket and up under Keith's t-shirt where his fingers met heated skin as they skimmed over the muscles of Keith's back.

Keith gasped at the touch and arched against his chest, which broke the kiss again and led to more free mouth babbling from Lance.

"You're kissing me and I'm kissing you," Lance murmured. "And you taste like grape space jelly."

Keith was still arched against Lance's chest as Lance's fingers continued to dance across his skin, leaving a burning trail in their wake. "Are you really going to keep talking through this?"

"Yeah. Yeah I really am."

Keith stared blankly at him.

"I'm just excited."

Keith's face softened. "Me too," he whispered.

One of Lance's brilliant smiles filled his face as he stared back at Keith – one of those smiles that Keith had always wished would be aimed at him even when they'd still been at the Garrison – and Keith couldn't help but pull Lance's face back towards him so he could claim the smile as his own in another kiss.

And maybe keep Lance's mouth busy for a little while before they finally fell asleep.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The movie Lance is referring to is "The Croods" - and I realized later that I also reference a different Nicholas Cage movie in my other Voltron story (I Wish You Were Mine). Just a complete (funny to me) coincidence I thought I'd share.
> 
> Thanks again for your supportive comments and kudos! I smile like a crazy loon every time I get a notification about a new comment. To the point where nearby people ask what the hell is wrong with my face. So thanks for that!
> 
> [suitboxers’ Tumblr with pics from chapter 3 in one fun place](https://suitboxers.tumblr.com/post/158325229934/chapter-3-arts-for-reader115s-amazeballs-fanfic) \- Please don't repost the artwork from here, but definitely head to suitboxers' site and show some love for this AMAZING artwork!!
> 
>  
> 
> [Also, here's a link back to Flickr for the 1st picture, which is kind enough to let me store my photos to be embedded in stories](https://flic.kr/p/V17Gyo)  
> [And a link back to Flickr for the 2nd picture](https://flic.kr/p/W5VS1v)  
> [Plus, a link back to Flickr for the 3rd picture](https://flic.kr/p/V17Gyy)  
> 


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So it's just my theory that building the teludav took some time. Like days or weeks instead of a 20 minute episode. And in case it's not clear - since I've already twisted season 2 a bit to fit my own needs – that's where I am in the timeline.
> 
> And – just – thank you for all the nice comments you guys left on that last chapter. I'm really just thrilled that you guys are enjoying this story and really appreciative of everyone who's told me just how much.

"Tell him."

Keith watched Shiro turn towards him as Allura spoke. His own eyes narrowed as he watched his friend's eyes darken until they were practically black. They looked cold and dangerous. Keith's brows furrowed together in a full fledged frown. Those emotionless eyes didn't belong on Shiro's face. Shiro's eyes were always so understanding. And patient, especially with the awkward loner he'd recruited into the Garrison. In fact, if it wasn't for how incredibly talented Shiro was as a pilot and getting caught up in this whole defender of the universe thing, Keith is pretty sure Shiro would've made a fantastic kindergarten teacher.

"Shiro?" he finally asked when a length of time went by without Shiro opening his mouth.

Shiro's dark eyes snapped up to his own. "You don't belong here, Keith."

Keith took a step back, flinching as if he'd been struck.

"You didn't belong at the Garrison and you don't belong here, either. You're endangering us. We need you to leave."

"But I don't -" Keith shuddered. He was suddenly freezing but he resisted the urge to rub his hands along his arms in order to warm himself up. "Where am I supposed to go?" He hated how weak and small his voice sounded.

"We have a small escape pod ready for you," Allura stated plainly.

Keith began shaking his head. "Red -"

"You are no longer her paladin," Shiro stated firmly.

"But she'll – she'll want to know where I am," Keith insisted.

"This is for the good of Voltron. She will understand."

The softness of Allura's voice in regards to _his lion_ only angered him. Allura didn't know Red better than he did. Red was his! And he was hers!

"Where's the rest of the team? What do they think?"

 _Lance_ , Keith thought, surely Lance would be angered by this. Hunk and Pidge too, probably. They were all friends, right?

"We've sent them on a small mission," Shiro said. "They won't be back until after you leave, but Allura and I will discuss this with them. They'll understand as well."

Keith began shaking his head again. No, no, no, no. They can't be gone right now! He knew in his gut that if Lance was here, he would never let Keith leave. Maybe Shiro and Allura knew that too? Maybe that's why they sent him away?

He tried to open his mouth again to protest, but one second Shiro's metal hand was on his shoulder and in the next second he was propelling through space in an escape pod. The sudden change left him feeling dizzy. And as the castle became smaller and smaller in his viewfinder, he could feel panic growing in his chest.

He didn't have a home. He didn't have a family. And the one person he wanted to see had just been ripped away from him. What would Lance think when he returned and found Keith gone? Would he try to find him?

He pushed his senses out, doing his best to reach Red. She'd traveled far to find him in the past. _Maybe this time_? He shuddered after a few moments when he realized he couldn't feel her presence in his mind anymore. Apparently she agreed that she needed a new paladin. Someone worthy of her. Someone not Galra.

And if Red could toss him out so easily, when they'd had such a strong bond for so long, maybe that meant he was wasting his time on hopes that Lance would fight for him to be part of Voltron. Maybe Lance would return from his mission and happily go along with whatever the princess said. Do that little half shrug he does when he doesn't care one way or another about a choice that has been made for him, like when he's outvoted on movie night.

Keith startled out of his thoughts when the escape pod jerked to a stop. He fought with the useless controls, but the pod was no lion, and he was too caught up in a tractor beam to try to finagle his way free.

Too caught up in a tractor beam pulling him towards a Galra fighter ship.

His hand swiped for his bayard, and his heart sank when he realized he didn't have it anymore. It was like being kicked while he was down. He swallowed hard and pushed past the disappointment as the pod was pulled inside the ship. He reached behind him for his personal blade – and growled when he found that it was missing as well.

The pod was shaken sideways and he tumbled out of it, landing hard on the metal floor.

"Finally."

Keith heard the sharp voice and looked up to see Zarkon stalking towards him. He stood unsteadily on his feet as Zarkon stopped in front of him. He looked Keith over with a hard look.

"You're finally where you belong," Zarkon said and Keith could feel his skin crawl. "Come with me. You're going to tell me what I need to know in order to take down Voltron."

His hand reached out to grip Keith's shoulder.

And Keith finally shuddered hard enough to wake himself up.

He was panting and his chest hurt from the residual panic and heartache.

But he was face to face with Lance. Lance's own face was relaxed and soft in sleep. He still had his arms wrapped around Keith, keeping Keith pulled tightly to his chest as they rested. And Keith had never been so happy to see his dumb, handsome face.

 _It was a dream. It was a dream. It was a dream._ He repeated it to himself. Maybe Allura wasn't thrilled with him right now, but she hadn't actually kicked him out of the castle. And Shiro would never allow it anyway. He knew that. Just like he knew Red wouldn't let them throw him away.

He could feel himself settling just by looking at Lance. And maybe the two of them had just started this thing between them – actually, he thought to himself - that wasn't true. They'd started this thing between them years ago. _Acknowledge_ this thing was what they'd just managed to do recently. But either way, he felt lucky. Just so goddamn lucky to have Lance in his corner. Because he knew Lance wouldn't let the others kick him out either.

He tightened his own arms around Lance and instantly knew it wasn't enough. He'd had to refrain from even _looking_ at Lance for too long over the last few years and now that he had him in his bed, he needed to be closer.

He pushed his dream away, unwilling to psychoanalyze it further right now. Instead, he nosed along Lance's jawline, pushing it upwards so he could dip down and press his lips against the sleeping paladin's throat. He was thinking about focusing on one area, just because he knew he'd really enjoy seeing such a mark on Lance's neck, when Lance stirred

"Is this the kind of wake up I can expect with you as a boyfriend?" Lance asked, his voice full of sleep.

Something inside Keith shuddered happily at the word _boyfriend_ falling so easily out of Lance's mouth. But he didn't answer him, and instead just continued kissing his way across Lance's warm skin, pleased with the freedom to do so, as he listened to soft sighs leave Lance's mouth.

Keith had shed Lance's jacket at some point during their sleep, only because the heat of having Lance pressed against him was enough to roast him. Other than that, they'd both slept in their clothes, although when he glanced down, Keith could see that Lance's shirt had slid up, revealing an appealing strip of abdomen. He remembered how amazing Lance's fingers had felt against his own skin, and tentatively let his fingertips slide against the exposed brown skin.

Lance shuddered beneath his fingers. "Keith," Lance rasped. It was all he managed before Keith's mouth was on his again, hot and already familiar.

Keith's fingers slid up under his shirt and began to explore the smooth broad chest. Lance shuddered again at the touches and huddled himself closer to Keith, essentially sliding himself beneath Keith. Keith groaned in appreciation as he shifted to accommodate him.

"Your fingers are so warm Keith," Lance managed to say, breaking their lip contact and shifting further so that he could get one arm wrapped around Keith's middle while his other hand began to card through Keith's unruly hair. "Feel so good."

"So this is okay?" Keith whispered back. His scalp tingled from Lance's attention and he began pressing kisses to anywhere he could reach along Lance's jaw.

" _Yes_ , Keith. You can touch me anywhere you want."

Keith found himself grinning into Lance's neck at that, and then didn't hesitate to slide his hand back down Lance's chest so that he could dip his fingers under the waistband of Lance's jeans. His fingers didn't go any further than that waistband, but it was enough to pull a whimper out of Lance's throat.

" _Dios_ , Keith," Lance panted while his hips arched up towards the red paladin.

"You okay?" Keith's voice was on the edge of teasing and he smiled into Lance's neck once again.

"Good, great," Lance responded with an enthusiastic nod as he completely ignored Keith's teasing tone. "My boyfriend's hand is almost down my pants, so –"

Keith covered Lance's mouth once again with his own for a quick kiss before he sat up and swung himself around to straddle Lance's waist. He took a moment to stare fondly down at Lance. Lance was _so much_. So much enthusiasm. So much warmth. So many bright smiles. Even right now, when he was barely awake, Keith wasn't sure how Lance could be contained in this long, lanky body that Keith was currently sitting on. He was struck pleased once again that they were here, that they had reached a point where they could be open with each other instead of hiding behind insults and glares.

"Do you really want to call me your boyfriend?" Keith asked.

Lance licked his lips and took in the sight above him. Keith's hair was appropriately mussed and framing that pretty face in a way that made his mouth dry. Slightly more distracting however was Keith's ass sitting in his lap. He couldn't help himself as his hips shifted upward.

"I know you're saying words to me but I'm having a hard time focusing," Lance said, although he did understand what the little gasp he earned from Keith meant.

Keith bit down another gasp when Lance shifted under him again. Then he frowned down at him. "I pin you like this all the time."

" _All the time_ might not be totally accurate."

Keith raised an eyebrow and smirked down at him.

"I'm pretty sure I pin you just as often as you pin me," Lance attempted.

Keith shifted once, just enough to grind his ass into Lance's lap in retaliation.

Lance gasped and shuddered. His hands landed on Keith's hips, although he wasn't sure if he wanted to stop him from doing that again, or full on encourage him to keep going.

He turned a small glare in Keith's direction. "Was there a reason for _this_ pin?"

"You called me your boyfriend earlier."

"Oh, well, yeah." Lance's tone was suddenly unsure and he tightened his grip on Keith's hips to keep his hands from fidgeting. Suddenly the position they were in went from erotically suggestive to leaving him feeling a little too exposed under Keith's dark eyed gaze. "Well, unless I'm reading you sucking my face incorrectly -"

"I like kissing you."

Lance huffed at Keith's matter of fact tone and sat himself upright, putting himself at eye level with Keith still in his lap. "So you just want to keep kissing? But not like -," he cut himself off and ran a hand through his hair.

"What?"

"Be like – together outside this room?"

One of Keith's hands wrapped a hand around the back of Lance's neck and he let his fingers play with the hair that he could reach there. "I just wanted to make sure that's what you meant when you called me that," Keith finally said.

"It is." A wide smile spread across Lance's face. "So I can call you my boyfriend?"

Keith nodded with his own dimple filled smile and Lance's heart began to beat faster, especially when he noticed Keith's grin grow mischievous.

"Although, I bet there's all kinds of places we could _be together_ that are outside of this room. I certainly wouldn't be opposed to pressing you up against some of the walls of this castle."

Lance sputtered. "You're going to kill me," he finally whispered. "Are you just going to say things like that now?"

Keith raised an innocent eyebrow at him in question.

"As if they're no big deal!" Lance exclaimed.

"You're the biggest flirt I've ever seen," Keith said dryly. "You _say_ things all the time!"

"Okay, one, I am not really complaining about the things that come out of your mouth. Please continue that, yeah?" He dropped a quick kiss on Keith's mouth before his eyes darted away so that he could begin to intently study his fingers which were busy squeezing Keith's hips. "And two, the things I say are usually never serious. At least, no one has ever taken me seriously before."

There was a brief pause from Keith before he said, "Wait, no one?"

Lance offered a half-hearted shrug.

Keith hummed in thought for a moment, and then, while perched in Lance's lap, Keith Kogane said something that Lance McClain was always going to remember. 

"Pretty sure it's cause you were meant for me."

Lance's mouth fell open and those bright blue eyes returned to Keith's face. "Dammit, Keith!"

Keith bit back a smile as he watched mock outrage cover Lance's face again.

"Out of the two of us, I'm supposed to be the romantic one, you sappy jerk."

Keith shrugged but grinned openly. He leaned himself forward, pressing his chest to Lance's chest, and shifted himself in Lance's lap before he pressed his mouth to Lance's. He could do this all day, he realized. Actually kissing Lance was so much better than any random thought he'd ever had in the past about what it _might be like_ to kiss Lance. One of Lance's hands made its way into his hair again, an action that had him smiling into their kiss as he considered how often Lance complained about his hair.

And again, he needed more. He increased the intensity of the kiss by licking his way into Lance's mouth and twisting his tongue around Lance's tongue. His fingers tugged at the hair at the nape of Lance's neck before he shifted in order to grind himself down into Lance's lap once again.

"Keeeith," Lance groaned. _God the heat he could feel in his gut_.

His hands slid down Keith's back until he was happily cupping Keith's ass. He watched as Keith's head jerked back at the touch. And with Keith's pretty mouth suddenly dropped open and his face pinked up and his half-lidded eyes focused solely on Lance's face, Lance knew he'd never seen anything so amazing in his whole life.

"Keith, I don't want you to take this the wrong way, but you're – just – holy shit, just really pretty. _Really fucking pretty_."

Keith's eyes widened at the compliment, but there confusion there as well. "Why would I take that the wrong way? Unless, you don't mean it?"

"Oh, I mean it," Lance said, kissing the cute furrow that had developed between Keith's eyebrows as he asked the question. "I guess I just thought you might take it the wrong because it's me saying it, but -"

"I like it _because_ it's you saying it, Lance."

Lance cut off the self-deprecating comment he'd been about to make and leaned back slightly as he regarded Keith fondly. Keith's comments over the past few days, combined with Keith's persistent soft kisses against his mouth, had him feeling like something special. He found himself hoping that Keith was right.

"I'm beginning to feel like we've wasted a lot of time," Lance said in a low voice.

"You mean because you keep talking?"

Lance rolled his eyes.

"You mean because you came up with a dumb rivalry and have spent the last few years insulting me?"

"You've been just as insulting!"

"I do rise to the bait too easily." Keith's eyes darkened as he shifted in Lance's lap and wrapped both his arms around his neck. "You want to see what other Lance-related things I rise easily to?"

"Keeeeith." Lance flopped back down on the bed, pulling Keith with him, and eyed Keith happily. "What on Earth have I unleashed in you?"

Keith chuckled. "We're not on Earth."

"You're honestly going to kill me."

Keith kissed him again. Who knew teasing Lance could be so much fun?

"Wait," Lance said as Keith's mouth relocated to his neck. "When do we tell the others?"

Keith leaned back slightly and thought about it. "Maybe after the teludav mission?"

Lance nodded in agreement. "Keep the team distractions to a minimum?"

Keith hummed again and then said with a sigh and a voice full of disappointment, "Guess I'll stop trying to leave a noticeable mark on your neck."

" _Dios_ , Keith."

 

* * *

 

A few hours after their lips had stopped moving against each other in favor of much needed additional sleep, they were awoken to the sound of the castle alarm blaring. They disentangled from each other, and sprinted together to the armor room where they began gearing up with the rest of the team.

"There is a Galra battle cruiser circling Olkarion," Allura's face appeared in a hologram on one side of the room. "We don't think they know our plan, but they cannot be allowed to stay. You must form Voltron and remove the threat."

"Understood," Shiro replied easily as he pulled on his helmet and took off for his own lion.

Lance finished pulling on his armor a few seconds before Keith. Then he stilled and watched Keith pull on his gloves and wondered what kind of goodbye would be appropriate right now. Kissing was definitely out with everyone else in the room. Hugging too, probably. What did that leave? Ruffling his hair? A high five? Nothing?

Keith pulled on his own helmet – taking away the hair ruffling option – and then knocked his fist into Lance's bicep and said a quick, "Go get em," before he turned and headed for his lion.

Lance watched him go for a moment, _because damn that boy's ass was distracting_ , then he turned and sprinted for Blue, happy to have had something in the way of a goodbye.

 

* * *

 

"Form sword," Shiro called out over their comms and Keith happily activated the giant robot's sword. They dove for the ion canon, dodging smaller fire blasts before Keith swung and dismantled the giant weapon. He also slid the sword along the siding of the giant ship as they went by. Just for good measure.

It was going down, crashing into the woods of Olkarion, and the rest of the team could feel Pidge's mix of anger and remorse over the damage it was going to cause the forest.

"The Olkari will help the forest heal," Shiro offered as they turned away from the crashing ship to head back to the castle.

They separated from each and Lance caught sight of the red lion in his viewfinder. He felt his chest warm as he thought about having a private celebration with Keith later that night. Maybe they'd even -

"What are you so excited about, Lance?" Hunk asked.

Lance froze, even though no one could see him, as he realized his feelings were still being projected to the rest of the team.

"Uh, just happy, buddy," Lance said. He could practically _feel_ Keith's smirk from here. "Just your average battle victory happiness."

"Cool, dude." Hunk's own happiness grew as well, reaching out to all of them, and Lance wondered if they could tell the difference between Hunk's pure and innocent happiness and his not so pure and innocent happiness.

"Hunk! Behind you!" Shiro's voice suddenly rang out.

Lance swung Blue around and spotted a few small Galra fighter ships aimed directly for Hunk, almost as if they didn't care if they were about to charge into the side of the yellow lion. He geared up his own weapon but he wasn't as fast as Keith and Red, who were by Yellow's side in an instant, knocking Yellow out of the way, and practically flipping backwards to also avoid being the target of the Galra's surprise attack.

Green had already been close to Yellow as well and Pidge, fueled by her anger about the damage to the planet below them, yelled out a quick, "Get some of this!" before hitting the button to activate her lion's newest modification. She aimed the magnified sonic blasts directly at the two ships. And they began to practically flail in the air before dropping to the planet below. It should've been a victory. Except she hadn't been expecting Red to jump into the line of trajectory in an attempt to blast the ships with fire power at that same moment.

Keith's sudden sharp pain from the blast reverberated back to the entire team. Everyone flinched and cried out. Pidge swore she even heard Red yelp in reaction to Keith's pain. Lance yelled Keith's name before he could even stop and remind himself that perhaps loud noises weren't a good idea. And while everyone continued to try to call out to Keith, Red was two steps ahead of them. She'd already turned and was sprinting back to the castle, much too fast for any of them to hope to catch up to.

Blue shot after her anyway, and Lance lowered his voice before he began to try to call out to Keith again.

"Keith. Keith, _please_. Please say something."

Lance could feel Pidge's regret. And Shiro and Hunk's worry. And when there was continued silence, Shiro's voice cut through the thick tension. "Red has the right idea. Keith will be fine."

Lance fought down his panic. If Keith's ears were busted again, he'd go back into a healing pod. He would be fine. Perfectly fine. Maybe his hearing would be affected at some point here, but Lance had a loud voice. See – see how well they were matched? Although, with Hunk and Pidge around, they could probably sort out some kind of hearing aid for –

"Lance?"

Lance perked up immediately when he heard Keith's voice come through a private line.

" _Keith, holy shit_. Are you okay? You know Hunk and Pidge are gonna want to apology hug it up when we get back. But, hey, maybe we can get some more space jelly and biscuits out of -"

"Lance," Keith interjected.

Lance closed his mouth on his next words when he heard the distress in Keith's voice.

"Lance, listen," Keith continued. "When we get back to the castle, I – I'm going to go back to my room to rest. Alone. Okay?"

"Keith, bud, I know you hate the healing pods, but -"

"No, Lance. I'm – I'm not hurt. Look, I'm conscious and I can hear you, right? I just want to be alone, okay?"

Lance deflated in his seat. He wavered between feeling hurt and wanting to do as Keith asked without making a huge deal out of it.

"Can you – can you just tell the others?"

Lance heard the way Keith's voice faltered and his protective instincts flared.

"I got you, Keith."

Keith's reply of _thanks_ was so soft Lance barely heard it.

 

* * *

 

Lance was moping. He poked at his green space goo at the dinner table while he half listened to Shiro's long lecture against using weapons that can hurt team members.

He'd told the rest of the team that Keith claimed to be fine, and that he wanted to be alone. But the shock of Keith's pain they'd all felt earlier on top of his glaring absence from the dinner table had them all on edge.

"Maybe I should bring Keith some dinner?" Hunk suggested at some point after Shiro stopped talking.

"I'll do it," Lance volunteered. He stood and began to fill another bowl with goo. "I'm going to bed now anyway."

He ignored their questioning looks and headed towards the bedrooms. He hesitated outside Keith's door and waffled back and forth between knocking or not knocking. Finally he knocked twice and began talking before Keith could even have a chance to question him.

"It's just me, Keith. I, uh, I have your dinner. It's fine if you don't want to answer. I just wanted you to know that I'm leaving it out here, okay? So, uh, I'm gonna go to bed. But if you're hungry, food is here." He paused for a moment, secretly wishing Keith would interrupt his rambling by opening the door and pulling him inside the room.

Keith didn't.

"Okay, goodnight, Keith."

He set the food down on the floor before he slinked away to his own room down the hall. He slowly got himself ready for bed and then sank down on his mattress. His face fell into his hands.

And it didn't matter that Keith hadn't actually blamed him for anything, he couldn't fight off a feeling of guilt. A feeling like he'd suddenly done something wrong. He ran over recent events and wondered if he'd been pushy? Or clingy? Although, considering the way Keith had been happily situated in his lap earlier, he didn't think Keith was suddenly upset about their physical contact.

Unless, well unless Keith was having second thoughts about him. Like maybe Keith realized he was aligning himself with the most useless member of Voltron? A cargo pilot who just happened to be here by pure luck?

He lifted his face and stared at his door. He wanted to see Keith. Plus, Keith fit so nicely tucked into his side when they slept. And if Keith knew what his private thoughts were right now, Keith would likely reassure him. Right?

But he didn't stand. If Keith wanted to be alone, he'd let the grumpy paladin have his alone time. For tonight at least.

 

* * *

 

The next morning found Lance up early and planted outside Keith's door. The bowl of food he'd left was gone, and Lance hoped that meant that Keith had actually eaten.

He knocked as loud as he dared considering Pidge's room was close by.

"Keith. Come on man, come out. Come to breakfast with me."

"No."

"Are you sick?"

"Um, no."

Lance frowned. "That's…not convincing." He glanced up and down the hallway and lowered his voice even further. "Listen, if I did something wrong – I just – can you just tell me what it was?"

"Lance, no," Keith said immediately and with as much sincere force as he could muster through a door. "You haven't done anything wrong. Okay? I'm just staying in here today."

"Why?"

"Because Allura already hated me when I just looked like human Keith."

Lance sucked in a breath and he was instantly grateful for the door blocking his face from Keith's view, because he immediately pictured Keith as a full fledged Galra soldier. But then he swallowed slowly and reminded himself that it would still be Keith. Grumpy, stubborn, cuddly, dimple-filled Keith. And so he knocked on the door again.

He was met by silence. "Keith, come on. You're not human Keith or Galra Keith. Just – just, if you're not going to come out, will you please let me in?"

Another few moments of silence went by before the doors slid open and Lance stepped into the room quickly before Keith could change his mind. But all movement stopped when his eyes rose to meet Keith's face. He'd been expecting a giant Galra soldier with mean yellow eyes and sharp claws. He'd been preparing himself to just be brave. He hadn't prepared himself not to _melt_.

"Oh my God, Keeeeith," he whispered. "That. Is. Amazing."

Keith had been staring at the ground with his shoulders hunched and his hands clenched in fists when Lance had entered. His fingers slowly unfurled and his shoulders slowly lowered, but he still refused to meet Lance's eyes.

Refused until the next words flew out of Lance's mouth at least.

"Can I – can I touch?"

Keith's eyes, still purple Lance thankfully noted, flew up to Lance's face. "This is not amazing, Lance! And what do you mean, _can you touch_?"

Lance was sure his eyes couldn't get any wider than they were at this moment. Keith was still the same height, which meant Lance was still slightly taller than him, _thank you very much_. His skin was still as pale as ever without a trace of a purple tinge. There were no claws, also important to note. Lance briefly wondered if Galra had fangs and decided Galra dental anatomy would be something to think about later, or at least check out after he got a good look at what Keith's teeth currently looked like.

But _holy fuck_ , sprouting out of Keith's crazy black hair were Galra ears. Fuzzy, purple Galra ears that were currently flicked back, displaying Keith's clear agitation. And if Lance thought Keith was adorable before all this, add in _fuzzy_ _kitten ears that displayed his emotions_ and Lance was sure he was going to perish on the spot from the cuteness.

Keith groaned in frustration then and spun around so he could sit on his bed before dropping his face into his hands. Lance followed his lead and plopped down on the bed beside him.

"Did they like, pop up on our mission yesterday?" _Holy crow the ears perked up when Lance spoke._ "Is this why you disappeared? Do you think it was a reaction from another sonic blast?"

Keith side-eyed Lance. Lance had sat himself just about as close as he could get on the bed. He didn't appear scared or freaked out or even worried. Keith supposed ears weren't really a thing to be scared of – it wasn't like he suddenly had claws – but the ears loudly screamed that Keith was Galra. Keith was part alien. Part enemy.

Keith lowered his hands and sat up straight before turning to Lance. "What are you doing?"

"Catching up," Lance said easily as he dropped his hands behind himself on the bed and then leaned into them while grinning at Keith. He couldn't help the pure joy he felt watching those ears move towards him whenever he spoke. "I missed you last night, ya know?"

It was said cheerfully, but Keith could see a layer of hurt in Lance's eyes and he cursed himself for being the cause of it.

"You really missed out this morning, too, cause I woke up with the best hair ever." Lance raised his eyebrows and pointed to his head of hair as he spoke. "I mean, _zero_ bed head and it combed exactly the way I wanted it to on the first try. Just a fantastic hair day for Lance."

Keith frowned, unsure where Lance was going with this. Plus, Lance's hair looked the same way it did every day. Shaggy, but still soft enough to make Keith want to touch it.

"But you and your kitten ears -"

" _Kitten_!" Keith growled.

" – have clearly one-upped me this morning on who woke up the cutest today."

Keith gaped at him. "You do realize why I have these, right?"

"Keith, I just – I mean – those may be the most adorable things I've ever seen."

"They're alien ears, Lance. They're not adorable. Why are you not freaked out about this?"

"Maybe because I'm secretly a furry."

Keith groaned and rubbed at both of his temples. "Even though I've never heard that word before, I have a terrible feeling I know what it means."

Lance laughed. "Okay, okay, I'm not really a furry."

"Then why are you so calm?"

"Maybe because I love kittens?"

Keith elbowed him. But he kept his eyes shifted towards the floor. And his ears were lowered.

Lance thanked whatever powers that be that led to Keith's Galra ears suddenly making an appearance. Not only did they make the red paladin look downright huggable, but Lance would take assistance in deciphering Keith's emotions any way he could get it.

Speaking of making the other paladin look huggable, Lance decided to take a chance and do just that. His arms wrapped around Keith's middle and he pulled Keith quickly into his chest. With how grumpy and sad Keith was, he half expected Keith to stiffen, or object, or push him away. Instead, Keith went willingly and curled into Lance like he was made to fit there. He tucked his face into the crook of Lance's neck and after another moment he reciprocated and wrapped an arm around Lance's upper back.

"Being part Galra has made you who you are, Keith, which means it's a good thing."

Keith pulled his face from Lance's neck in order to meet Lance's blue eyes directly.

"How can you say that?"

"Because I know you. And you – Keith – you're the best. And I'm not saying that as a prick who's trying to be your rival so you'll pay attention to me. I mean it. You're exactly who I want to be with everyday. Who I want to look at every day – _dios_ – especially now."

Keith rolled his eyes, but then returned them to Lance's face. Lance was always so open. So easy to read. And Keith forced himself to keep eye contact as he saw the earnest truth in Lance's bright blue eyes.

Words, especially words right now to show Lance his appreciation, weren't his strong suit. So he pressed his lips to Lance's and practically sighed into the kiss when Lance kissed him back without hesitation. He'd missed Lance last night and could feel a strong regret for not confiding in him as soon as the ears had appeared after that blast in Red yesterday.

Because instead of confiding in Lance, he'd panicked. Images from his nightmare had returned full force because there was no denying or ignoring the fact that he was part Galra with purple fuzzy ears sticking out of his head. He'd been sure that one look at him would have the team hurling him out of the castle in an escape pod.

"You need to have more faith in us, babe," Lance managed to murmur into their kiss – _and Keith had a brief moment where he wondered if Lance could actually read his mind_ \- before Lance slid his tongue into Keith's mouth and gingerly ran it along the edges of Keith's teeth. Just - you know - confirming that he was fangless, before he began to enthusiastically twist his tongue with Keith's.

Keith groaned into the kiss and shifted so that he could pull Lance down onto the bed with him, while continuing to think about how grateful he was to have Lance help him through this. He had no idea how he would've managed to make it this far without Lance's calm and endearing understanding guiding him through.

Lance kept up with the kiss as he crawled on top of Keith. He was silently kicking himself for thinking that Keith would suddenly toss him aside. He should've given Keith more credit than that. Keith's hard exterior was a pretty damn good cover for the inner Keith who needed comfort and reassurance, perhaps even more than anyone else. And Lance would always be ready to prove that he had plenty to offer.

And with Keith arched under him, Lance figured he couldn't go _too_ wrong, so he reached a hand up and tentatively traced one of Keith's pointy ears with his fingers. The ear flinched under his fingers, but he pressed his mouth harder against Keith's mouth with a small noise in his throat, a plea for Keith to trust him. And it seemed to work, as Keith's ear relaxed under his fingers. He continued to trace the ear for a few more moments, reveling in how soft it was, before he got brave again and scratched his fingers behind the ear.

And then it got so much better. Because Keith released a noise that sounded like a goddamn purr.

" _Jesus, Keith_ ," Lance gasped. He leaned his weight on an elbow so he could stare down at Keith. "If you're going to be this hot, plus have kitten ears, plus _purr_ , while also being a badass paladin, then I'm going to go ahead and declare that I have the best boyfriend in the universe."

" _Lance_ ," Keith panted out with fond exasperation as he tried to pull Lance's face back down.

"No, I mean it, babe. Like the entire universe." He watched Keith's face turn a pretty pink color and his grin only widened. "You're a beautiful space cat, babe."

Keith poked him in the side and grinned when Lance flinched. "I don't know how I feel about _babe_ as it is. Don't you dare call me a space cat."

Lance audibly sighed. "Look, Keithy, you gotta give me something. And since you don't like mullet -"

"Who would?"

"- or space cadet -"

Keith rolled his eyes.

"- and shortstack is probably out - "

"You're barely taller than me!"

"And I'm betting you'd murder me in my sleep if I tried to use something cutesy like honey pie or sweetums –"

"I've never agreed with you more than this moment right here."

" – then you're going to have live with babe. And space cat. And I really like Keithy too. And I'm just giving you a fair warning that I'm sure more will come to me in the future."

Now it was Keith's turn to audibly sigh. "What's wrong with Keith?"

"I like Keith, too," Lance said with a devious smile. Being on top of Keith gave him a little bit of an advantage and as he shifted the leg he had between Keith's legs up so that he could rub one of his thighs against Keith's groin while leaning in close and moaning out "Keeeeith," directly into one of Keith's cute kitten ears.

Keith gasped. And shuddered. And still managed to openly glare at him when he pulled away.

" _Fine_ ," Keith murmured in his own low, dangerous tone. Although, he couldn't hold the look for long. Not since Lance had waltzed into his room and easily managed to erase all the bad feelings he'd been stewing in for the past several hours.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [suitboxers’ Tumblr with pics from chapter 4 in one fun place](https://suitboxers.tumblr.com/post/158353702044/arts-for-chapter-4-of-reader115s-amazing-fic)  
>  Please don't repost the artwork from here, but definitely head to suitboxers' site and show some love for our 1st real glimpse of cat-eared Keith!
> 
>  
> 
> [Also, here's a link back to Flickr for the 1st picture, which is kind enough to let me store my photos to be embedded in stories](https://flic.kr/p/VGgY2A)  
> [And a link back to Flickr for the 2nd picture](https://flic.kr/p/VGgY3Y)  
> 


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd like to say another huge thanks to everyone leaving me comments and kudos! In fact, a couple people mentioned they were excited to see how the rest of the team reacted to Keith's Galra ears and I had spent so much time writing Lance's reaction that I hadn't even thought about everyone else yet. So thanks for reminding me that that was important, because I got to work writing that bit too! Comments for the inspirational win!
> 
> Also, there's some "mature" content in this chapter. Just a heads up. 
> 
> And special thinks to my friend, Stitcherbell, who's always there with some encouraging words right when I need them.

"Deep breath."

"Lance, if I take any more deep breaths I'm gonna pass out."

Lance's eyes scanned over Keith's face. The red paladin looked calm enough, but it was that seemingly calm face that had Lance's own stomach twisting into knots. He wasn't sure how this was about to go down, but he was going to do his best to make it as painless as possible for Keith.

"Just, you're sure everyone is in there? I only want to do this once."

Lance poked his head around the doorframe and looked again, even though he'd just checked twenty ticks ago. "Yeah, everyone is eating breakfast."

"Even…?"

Lance did his best to focus on Keith's words instead of the two adorable, purple ears that lifted upright when the question was asked.

"Yeah, she's here too."

Keith took another deep breath, then reminded himself to _stop that_ before he fell over from dizziness.

"You go first. I'm gonna follow you."

Keith's eyes narrowed and his ears flattened against his hair. "You're just going to make sure my exit is blocked."

Lance's laugh was a little sheepish. "Look, we're all a family, right? So let's just get in there." He watched Keith's ears relax back into cute, upright points. Unable to resist, he leaned in close and pressed a kiss to Keith's pout while also lifting a hand to let his fingers run over one of the soft ears.

Keith had to forcibly bite back a purr. "You don't have to kiss me every time you want to touch them," he managed to mumble against Lance's mouth.

"Noted. Although, I like doing both. Now get moving, space cat."

Keith nodded, suddenly determined, and turned to walk into the dining hall. He thought about grabbing a bowl of breakfast goo and sitting in his seat, just going about his normal routine in the hopes that no one would notice what had suddenly sprouted out of his head. But since Lance thought fast and quick was the way to go about this, he stopped at the head of the table and waited for his stillness to draw the others' eyes to him.

Shiro was the first to react. His chair made a scraping noise as he quickly stood and made his way to Keith's side. He dropped a hand to Keith's shoulder when he reached him in order to turn him towards him. "Keith, are you okay?"

"Well - " Keith offered a shrug with his free shoulder.

"We all felt your pain from that blast yesterday." Shiro's eyes roamed over Keith's face, looking for any sign of discomfort from the other.

"I'm – I'm fine, Shiro. No residual pain."

Shiro squeezed his shoulder. "You're sure? You're okay?"

"I have Galra ears now, Shiro," Keith deadpanned.

"Yeah, you do, bud," Shiro said, with a quick nod and an even quicker look up at the purple ears that were sticking out of black hair. He let his hand fall of Keith's shoulder with a small grin. "I'm just glad to hear you're okay."

Keith stared dumbly back at him. "Galra ears, Shiro."

Shiro tipped his head. "They look like – cat ears?"

"Space cat," Lance whispered from behind Keith.

Keith resisted the urge to turn and shoot him a look. Instead, he turned back towards the table. Hunk's eyes didn't look like they could get any wider as he stared at Keith, Pidge looked small in her seat, Coran was watching the princess, and the princess looked – well Allura looked heartbroken. When Keith made eye contact with her, her eyes shot back down to her breakfast. She picked up her spoon and resumed eating. But, Keith thought, at least she wasn't leaving the room.

"Pidge," Keith said. He turned to the guilty-looking paladin, intent on tackling this issue before she visibly sunk any further in her chair. "I'm sorry about yesterday. I felt your intent with that blaster a moment too late. I didn't mean to jump in front of you like that."

"Keith – no, I shouldn't have used it with you nearby," Pidge said, straightening in her seat. "I know you hate apologies," – Keith let half his mouth quirk up in a small grin, - "but I'm sorry anyway."

"Oh my god they're adorable," Hunk whispered from his seat.

"Do you - ," Pidge turned to Coran. "Could additional injury to his human ears have resulted in dormant Galra ears to appear like this? Like a defense mechanism?"

Coran's eyes were bright and curious as well as he twirled his moustache. "I am fairly certain Galras are always born with their ears in place," he said rather cheekily. "Its hard to say without being able to speak with anyone else who is only part Galra."

"Keith," Hunk said seemingly oblivious of the other conversation going on around him, "can I pet them?"

"No!" Lance jumped forward at that, shielding Keith from the table and earning strange looks from the rest of the team. "It's, uh, you know that Keith doesn't like being touched, Hunk," he added, softening his tone for his surprised looking friend. "Let's not make this any more uncomfortable for him, yeah?"

"That's very considerate of you, Lance," Shiro said. It wasn't until that moment that he thought about how Lance had arrived _with_ Keith. And Keith wasn't looking to Lance for a reaction to the ears, which meant Keith had already seen Lance's reaction. In private. He shot another smirk in Keith's direction before he returned to his seat. "You two better eat. We still have training this morning."

Lance followed Keith to grab their bowls of food and then took the seat next to him at the table. He offered one reassuring pat to Keith's thigh before he quickly began to engage the others in his theory that they could defeat Zarkon if they could only get him to eat some of the Baku he and Hunk had been exposed to in the underwater planet.

"Zarkon would be all ' _I feel so safe and warm'_ and Voltron would come in and be like ' _You're safe and a goner, dude_!'" Lance grinned when he earned chuckles from everyone around the table, including a small smile from the princess. He glanced over at Keith and hoped Keith noticed too. Allura couldn't be too upset if she was already easily being amused by his dumb theory.

He caught a grateful side glance from Keith. And did his best to ignore the weird looks Hunk kept sending him from across the table.

 

* * *

 

"So you and Keith finally, huh?" Hunk murmured to him as they followed the others, including their new Marmoran allies, Kolivan and Antok, towards the training deck.

"No, wait, huh?" The words came out in quick succession as Lance's eyes darted up towards the others. Keith had taken off for the training deck as soon as his last bite of breakfast was out of his bowl so that he could work in some extra training. He'd shot Lance a look before he'd left the table and Lance was happy Keith was going to grab a chance to work off some of the leftover tension he could see in the other's shoulders.

Hunk shot him an unimpressed look. "Please. Despite your complaints, I could see how you felt about him back at the Garrison, dude. I was kind of wondering how long it'd take you to finally act on it out here."

Lance's eyes scanned the group in front of them again. No one seemed to be paying attention, and Hunk was at least keeping his voice low.

"How do you know I've acted on anything here?"

"Maybe because _protective Lance mode_ has been activated," Hunk said with a laugh. "Do I really have to list out the obvious? Like an hour ago when you stood behind him in support during the Galra ears reveal? Or when you camp out in front of his healing pod repeatedly? Or bring him food? Or offer up your jacket cause he's cold?" Hunk's grin couldn't get any wider as he watched Lance's face begin to blush. "Or how about the number of times you've gone red around him lately?"

"I do not -"

"And don't think I didn't catch you guys spooning on the couch a few nights ago."

Lance's eyes widened. "Hunk!"

Hunk laughed. "What? I left you there, didn't I? Didn't disturb a thing."

"We were just sleeping -"

"Oh good, cause I'd like to sit on that couch again."

Lance could feel his ears going red at this point. There wasn't much point in denying Hunk's claims, but he was going to stick by what he and Keith had agreed on as far as sharing their new status with everyone. He stopped in his tracks and watched as the others kept moving while Hunk stilled next to him.

"I just can't say anything yet."

Hunk only continued to grin at him. And then picked him up in a bear hug. And whispered that he was happy for them. Then he set him back on the ground and they moved fast to catch up.

Keith wasn't actively training when they entered the room, but he was sweating and panting as if he'd just finished. He pulled an elastic band off his wrist and pulled his hair up into a ponytail as he joined the group.

"Why are you all red?" Keith murmured over to Lance.

Lance stared back at him and shook his head before murmuring back, "I'll tell you later," and did his best to convince himself it was Hunk's blatantly truthful claims that still had him blushing and not Keith's flushed skin and ridiculously adorable ponytail.

He turned his attention to Shiro and the princess, who were discussing with Kolivan the most recent transmission they'd received from Thace. However, he stopped paying attention when Antok appeared on Keith's other side.

"Those ears are quite fitting on you," Antok said in a voice low enough that Lance was pretty sure he would've missed the words if he hadn't been straining to hear them. "I've seen your skills in battle and I find you quite impressive. Once Zarkon is defeated, you should consider joining the Blade full time. I would be happy to claim you, which would certainly help with your transition into the group with the others."

" _Claim_?" Lance growled out. He leaned across Keith and let his eyes shoot daggers towards Antok.

"Hey!" Keith grunted as Antok suddenly used one arm to bodily sweep him behind him so that he could step towards Lance.

At the sight of Antok trying to shield Keith behind him, Lance launched himself towards Antok just as the others turned their attention towards the smaller group. Antok bunched two fists in Lance's shirt and lifted him up off his toes so that they were soon face to face.

"He's Galra," Antok whispered so that only Lance could hear him, even as the others were descending on them to break them up.

" _He's mine_ ," Lance hissed back.

Antok took a deep breath in through his nose and Lance realized he was sniffing him for Keith's scent. He couldn't help the triumphant smirk when he could see that Antok found it.

"Let go of him." Keith's growling voice joined their space next and Lance could see that his Marmoran blade had been pulled and activated.

Lance was set slowly back down on the ground as the others finally reached them and he watched as Antok whispered one more thing to Keith, which filled Keith's face with surprise before he glared back at Antok, before Kolivan was there pulling him away. Lance finally noticed Shiro and Allura's hands on him then, checking him over to make sure he was alright.

"Lance," Shiro finally said, "you are not allowed to attack our allies."

"No, but he -" Lance shut his mouth after that. It wasn't like he could explain to the rest of them that he had just gotten jealous and attacked a _rival_.

But Shiro gave him a strange look at that. Lance refusing to defend himself had certainly captured his attention. He turned his back to the Marmorans, where he could hear Kolivan berating Antok for fighting with the Voltron paladin as well. With Lance shielded from their sight, he lowered his voice and asked, "Unless there's a reason they should not be our allies?"

It was Keith who answered as he took a spot next to Shiro and added to the protective wall around Lance. "It was a personal disagreement, Shiro. I'm sure it won't come up again."

"Let's see that it does not then," Allura said from behind Lance.

Keith could see her eyes narrow in on him, and for this occasion, he couldn't really blame her.

"Paladins," Allura said next, cutting off the multiple conversations in the room. "According to Thace, we need to move up our timeline of attack. I have spoken with the Olkari who assure me the teleduv is practically ready. So tomorrow we move out. Shiro will leave first in the black lion and draw Zarkon to us. Lance, you'll go in next and place some explosions on some of the smaller side ships. That will be enough of a distraction for - "

"That should be Keith's job," Lance said, his face full of confusion. "Only Keith and Red are stealthy enough to move between those ships."

"Lance, you are an excellent pilot, and you will set the explosions," Allura repeated. She kept her eyes trained on Lance, practically beaming as she complimented him.

Lance would be lying if he denied wishing that Allura would beam at him and praise him just as she was doing this very minute. And part of him wanted to shut up and just accept the good pilot compliment, and the reassurance that he was an important member of the team. He wanted to be taken seriously and given a vital part to their battle plan. These had been his goals when he'd joined the Garrison in the first place.

Except - he glanced at Keith next to him and found Keith staring hard at the ground in front of him with those cute kitten ears flattened back against his head - this moment was eerily similar to the other time he'd gotten everything he'd ever wanted by being promoted to the fighter pilot class back at the Garrison.

And he refused to accept something that came at Keith's expense. Again.

Lance's head snapped back towards Allura. "What do you even have Keith doing?" He watched the smile drop off Allura's face as her eyes narrowed in on him. "Allura, do you trust us? Do you trust us as Voltron's paladins? Because we trust Keith."

Keith watched in stunned silence as his fellow paladins not only stood a little straighter at that, but even edged a little closer to where Keith and Lance stood.

"And do you trust the lions?" Lance continued. He could see Coran take a step towards the princess and tried not to feel hurt by it. Whether they were friends or not, Coran and Allura went back over ten thousand years. "You said yourself that Red was the hardest to form a bond with and yet she's torn through _actual walls_ to get to Keith when she senses that he needs help."

He took a deep breath then, because Allura's eyes finally dropped to the ground, which was as good an admission of guilt as Lance needed.

"Look," he said, lowering his voice, "I get you being angry because of your loss," he emphasized the word without spelling out the losses, "but Keith is not to blame for what happened and misplacing him in battle because you're mad puts all of us in danger."

"He's right," Hunk said, suddenly right at Lance's side, and Lance resisted the urge to hug his best friend then and there.

Pidge stepped even closer to Lance and Keith as well. "This – it just lowers our probability for survival, Princess, and I have things to do after this."

Shiro watched the other four group together and felt a small surge of pride. Although he didn't count his imprisonment and losses to be anywhere near the level of losing family, and Altea, and an entire population of people, he understood Allura's need to harbor bitterness and hatred towards the Galra. So he hadn't pushed her as hard as he probably should have in regards to how she was treating Keith. He thought with time she'd remember that they weren't harboring an enemy Galra on their team, but a noble Voltron paladin.

But, he could see that his team was right. They did have a mission to focus on and they needed Keith included where his strengths would offer all of them the best chance for success. He made a mental note to commend Lance later for bringing it up.

"Allura," Shiro said slowly, using her name instead of calling her princess to force her eyes up and on his face. "We have Galra allies. Galra who have scarified themselves to help us. You should know that not all Galra are bad or to be blamed for Zarkon's actions. But even more important than that, you know Keith. He's proven himself over and over as an excellent paladin and a loyal teammate."

Keith could feel his ears slowly raise upright as his teammates – his family – stood up to defend him. He lifted his eyes to Allura's and watched as her eyes shifted from Shiro to him. He watched the visible struggle on her face. He honestly didn't blame her for her anger. He'd spent years being angry himself, and he knew how easy it was to give himself over to the anger at the loss of his own family, at the loss of his friend when Shiro disappeared and everyone lied about his death, and at the loss of _everything_ when he was living by himself in the desert.

"Allura -," he started, ready to apologize, or defend himself, or do something to pull his own weight with his teammates here in this conversation. This life as a paladin was hard and demanding. And he was tired of living with this added stress of her misplaced disapproval of him on his shoulders.

But she began shaking her head as she crossed the room to him and then her arms were around him in a hug. He stiffened for a moment before tentatively and awkwardly patting her back a few times in return. Truthfully, he missed having her as a friend, and though he knew she was about to start talking, the hug would've been apology enough for him.

"I'm sorry," Allura whispered to him before releasing him. She swiped some loose hair behind one of her ears and took a step back, but met his eyes again before she began speaking. "Keith, I've grown to consider you and the paladins my family. So when I learned you were Galra, I didn't know what to think. I wanted to hate you. But it's not you, it's me. My anger has blinded me for too long. I'm so sorry I misjudged you. You've proven it's not what in your blood. It's who are that counts."

Keith stared back at her. It wasn't until he felt Lance's hand reach over and brush the back of his own hand that he snapped out of his trance and managed to say, "Thank you, princess."

"Plus," Allura added, "your Marmoran blade obviously shows us that you're descended from someone who is part of the rebellion against Zarkon, which is definitely part of what makes you who you are Keith. And for that I can only be grateful."

" _We_ can only be grateful," Shiro added.

"Definitely." Pidge sidled closer to his other side with a smile.

"Very, very lucky to have you on our team, man." Hunk reached over and nudged his shoulder.

Keith flushed. He could feel the heat crawling up his neck and wished now that his hair was down so it wouldn't be so visible. But Allura's words were so similar to what Lance had said to him back when Keith had asked why Lance wasn't freaked out about his Galra side. He risked a look at Lance's face and got an _I told you so_ smirk for his trouble.

He fought a smile but in the end he wasn't successful. How was he supposed to go on being ashamed of his Galra side with all of them gushing all over it?

 

* * *

 

The five paladins stuck close together for the rest of the day after that. Although the initial plan was to do some training with Kolivan and Antok, they decided instead to separate from their guests and take their lions out to stretch their legs. They formed Voltron easily just to prove that that they could. They ate lunch together and then sat squished into the couches to watch a movie.

Lance watched Keith's ears remain up all day, and even caught a few smiles on Keith's face, content and happy to be safe within their group. And he had only had to bat Hunk's curious fingers away from the fuzzy ears once all day.

But he also noticed Keith getting more fidgety as the day went on. So after dinner, Lance excused himself to his room, and had only a short ten minutes to wait before there was a knock on his door.

Team bonding was good and all, but he hadn't been alone with Keith all day, and he was ready to ask him how he was feeling after everything that had happened that morning. But after he let Keith in, he didn't get a chance to utter one word before he was swept up in _Keith_.

Keith had Lance pushed up against the closest wall as soon as the bedroom doors slipped shut. He cradled Lance's face gently in his hands, which was in sharp contrast to the way his mouth moved hard and hungry against Lance's mouth. Keith couldn't help but feel slightly dizzy at the warmth that filled him as he pressed himself against Lance and listened to the pleased groans coming from Lance's throat.

He owed the rest of the team a lot for their loyalty and understanding. But Lance had been his saving grace that day, and he had been itching to get his hands on Lance for the last few hours. He slid a leg between Lance's legs and rubbed himself against the hardness he could already feel, drawing out a whine from Lance as Lance all but dropped his weight down on Keith's thigh and rubbed back.

"Hot," Lance gasped, and pulled his arms away from Keith's back so that he could pull his shirt up over his head. When his own shirt was gone, he tugged at the hem of Keith's until Keith's t-shirt was tossed away on the ground as well. "Dios," he murmured as he took heavy delight in watching Keith's abdominal muscles twitch beneath his roving fingers before he proceeded to slide himself down the wall to meet the delicious friction Keith was offering with his thigh once more.

Keith hummed in agreement as his mouth worked its way across Lance's neck and he let his own fingers explore Lance's exposed smooth skin. Then he let Lance push them off the wall and back him across the room. They tugged at each other's jeans until they could step out of them before tumbling down on Lance's bed.

It wasn't until they were still trying to rub against each other in the bed that Lance wished they'd removed their boxers as well while they'd been upright. His hand slipped into Keith's boxers first and he earned his first high pitched whine from Keith with one stroke. Then Keith was pulling away from him and up on all fours above him. He pressed another hot wet kiss to Lance's mouth before his lips began to descend down Lance's chest. Lance watched in wide-eyed wonder as he realized where Keith's mouth was headed.

He gasped as Keith's fingers teased by dipping under the waistband of his boxers. But his fingers only played there, sliding back and forth, leaving a trail of heated skin in their wake as Keith's mouth continued to work over his chest. It wasn't until Lance's hip lifted in search of friction that Keith finally slid the boxers down his long legs and tossed them to the floor.

Then Keith paused, and Lance found himself holding his breath. Keith's head was bent down and while Lance couldn't see his eyes through his bangs, he had a pretty good idea what newly exposed area had caught Keith's attention.

"Keith?" His voice was still breathy but more tentative than he would've liked. He really didn't want the two of them to have made it this far only to have Keith suddenly disappointed in him.

Keith seemed to jerk out of his trance and lifted his head to meet Lance's blue eyes. He kept his eyes glued to Lance's while one of his palms slid up Lance's hard length. Lance sucked in a breath at the surprise contact as he was mesmerized by the _heat_ and _want_ he could see in Keith's eyes.

"Have I ever told you how hot you are?" Keith leaned forward on his knees and pressed a kiss to Lance's cheek and then peppered more over his face. "Or how beautiful you are?" He quit teasing Lance with his palm and finally wrapped his hand around him tightly and offered a few steady strokes as he dropped more kisses over Lance's face. "You're all golden, long-limbed perfection," Keith continued in a whisper while Lance moaned under him and clung to his shoulders as his strokes quickened. "And you've got the brightest smile I've ever seen."

Keith claimed that smile again with his own mouth and was immediately treated to Lance's tongue fervently twisting with his own tongue as well as more beautiful moans from Lance's throat. But when Lance went to reach for him again, he leaned back on his knees and lowered his head, pulling Lance's cock into his mouth in one smooth movement.

" _Keith_ ," Lance gasped. " _Dios, Keith, fucking hot_." And he was. Keith's mouth was hot and wet and perfect wrapped around him. There was a slight glint of amusement in Keith's pretty eyes when he glanced up at him, but then he went back to working his mouth and tongue and lips and teeth over Lance in a steady rhythm that had Lance keening under him.

Lance's fingers twisted in Keith's hair and he was trying not to shove himself any further into Keith's mouth, but he was left writhing on the bed and hoping his moans weren't traveling through his bedroom walls.

With being a defender of the universe, it had been much _much_ too long since Lance had felt anything this nice. Actually, he was pretty sure he'd never felt anything this nice. His hand _didn't compare_ to the skill of Keith's mouth and he did his best to tell this to Keith in a stream of moaning, babbling praise. He wished this could last forever. That they could just stay here. The two of them in this room where it was safe and he was burning hot with pleasure from Keith. Of course, he wanted Keith to be burning hot with pleasure as well, and the image of Keith blissed out and rocking against him was pushing him right to the edge of this pleasure-filled cliff very quickly.

" _Keeeeeith_ ," he gasped again with a tug on Keith's hair. "Keith, I'm gonna -," his head flew back as Keith's cheeks hollowed in response. And suddenly there was nothing else in the world except Keith's tight, warm mouth, the shout he released, and whiteness filling his vision. There was a brief sensation of Keith shuddering against one of his legs before Keith finally pulled off of him and sat back, looking as wrecked as Lance felt. He watched with hazy eyes as Keith began to climb out of the bed and forced his fuzzy brain to work so he could get a few words out with a newly hoarse voice.

"Wait, wait. You?"

"I, uh, that took care of me too," Keith said with a guilty grin.

He watched Keith pull his now soiled boxers off, and he was treated to his first real eyeful of a fully naked Keith. He swallowed hard at the sight and felt himself grow warm again at the thought that this pretty boy was all his. Then he watched Keith use his boxers to wipe himself down before climbing back into bed.

"You're naked in my bed," Lance whispered with a wide grin as he pulled Keith in close and tangled their legs together.

"Is that okay?"

"I'm currently clinging to you, so I'm gonna say yes."

"Good," Keith answered before he let his relaxed muscles melt against Lance's side.

"I can't believe I didn't really get my hands on you, though."

Keith rubbed a thumb against the corner of Lance's mouth, trying to get rid of his pout. "I'll be looking forward to those long fingers next time," he said and grinned when he saw Lance's eyes widen in interest. "But you've done plenty of work today."

Realization dawned on Lance as he realized what Keith was thanking him for. He smiled softly at his space cat boyfriend and rubbed a hand over one of Keith's ears. He waited till those purple eyes slid shut and he heard a purr start before continuing. "That wasn't work," he murmured.

"Yeah, well that wasn't work either," Keith murmured back, sending a scandalous glance down Lance's long body.

Lance shivered under that gaze and tightened one of the legs he had wrapped around Keith. "Today was a good day," he whispered.

Keith nodded in agreement. "For me too. Because of you."

"Hey, when we were leaving the training room earlier, Antok said ' _I guess you did'_ to you. What was he talking about?"

Half of Keith's mouth quirked up in a smirk at that as he eyed Lance. He'd almost forgotten about Antok's offer to claim him earlier, especially after what had happened with Allura right after.

"You know, with the Galra heritage, I thought I'd be the more possessive one of the two of us for some reason."

"Hey! He was trying to carry you off to Marmora land!"

Keith grinned before planting a kiss on Lance's mouth. "I wasn't complaining about what you did."

"Good," Lance muttered, eyeing Keith's mischievous grin. "So what did he mean? And what did he say to you after my fight with him?"

"You really want to call that a fight?"

"I was defending your honor! I get to call it a fight!"

Keith laughed outright at Lance's look of indignation, but snuggled closer to Lance all the same, which distracted his tall boyfriend rather quickly.

"He told me that Galra mate for life, so I'd better choose wisely." He watched Lance's face do something complicated before a pretty pink color began to cover his beautiful brown face. "You really did defend my honor in regards to Allura, you know, so as we were leaving, Antok was just pointing out that it looked like I _did_ choose wisely."

Lance was suddenly stiff in his arms. Keith pulled his head back enough to try to read his expression, especially since Lance strangely had no verbal response, and he found Lance staring blankly at a spot past Keith's head.

"Sorry," Keith blurted out, ears tucking down as he moved his head to try to earn Lance's attention. "I got caught up in learning about Galra stuff. I shouldn't have told you all that. I mean, lifetime commitment conversations with a guy you _just_ started dating is probably a big no-no. I think at least. I mean, I've never done this before, either, so - "

Lance kissed him hard and wrapped his arm tighter around Keith's back so he could pull him impossibly closer. "Your rambling is cute," he murmured a moment later. "And if you intend to be my space cat husband one day, I want you to know I have certain expectations."

Keith watched Lance wiggle his eyebrows at him as relief flooded through him at the realization that another weird Galra part of him hadn't just run Lance off.

"And what are those?"

"I expect you to be a good provider, you know, bring home the bacon. Like actual bacon made from Earth pigs." He couldn't help the grin on his face as Keith rolled his yes. "Plus, I expect a house on the beach one day. _A nice beach with real sand_. Not like that place Coran called a beach where the pebbles came alive when we stepped on them and tried to eat our ankles like some scary nightmare version of those _Frozen_ movie trolls."

Keith tried to hold back a snort. "Why are you like this?"

Lance's eyes widened. "I am a delight!"

Keith pulled his face close again and nuzzled against it. "Yeah, you are."

 

* * *

 

The next morning, Keith found himself covered in Lance, possibly made more pleasant than any other time this had happened by the fact that they were both still completely naked.

"Its time to get up," Keith grumbled when he felt Lance stir next to him.

Lance shifted so that they were fully facing each other, and without opening his eyes, murmured back with, "My hot boyfriend is naked in bed with me. _Trust me,_ I'm up."

And before Keith could try to pull them both out of bed, Lance's hand, with those blessed long fingers, was wrapped tightly around both of them, waking them fully with solid strokes that pulled low moans and gasps. Keith tried to muffle himself with his mouth against Lance's skin, and eventually even succeeded in leaving a mark, even if it was on his shoulder where Keith sadly wouldn't be able to see it later.

Afterwards, Lance pulled them from the rumpled bed and led Keith into the shower with him where he took longer than Keith thought was entirely necessary to wash Keith's hair for him. And he didn't entirely appreciate the fact that Lance adored the way his ears flicked irritably in the water. And as he was drying off, Lance tossed a clean pair of boxers at him before he could get dressed.

"If I'm walking around knowing this is here all day," Lance said, pointing to the mark Keith had left behind on his skin, "then you're walking around in those all day."

Keith was fine with that and kissed Lance to let him know. Then they separated. Keith needed to go to his room for his boots and weapons, but told Lance he'd meet him in the dining hall for breakfast.

Except Lance didn't show up for breakfast.

The room was full of a sort of muted, nervous energy as everyone silently ate their green goo. Hunk appeared with biscuits covered in space jelly and a small shrug as he declared that today was a special occasion. Keith watched the door and when it was clear Lance was going to miss out, he swiped an extra biscuit, shoveled in the last of his space goo, and excused himself.

He went straight to Lance's room and knocked. The doors opened and inside he found a completely different Lance than the relaxed, smiling guy he'd left less than an hour before.

Lance was sitting on the edge of a freshly made bed, hunched over with his head propped on knuckles while his elbows rested on his knees. Keith didn't speak as he sat beside him. He just offered Lance the biscuit he'd brought him and rested a shoulder against him as Lance began to eat.

"Today's the day," Lance finally whispered.

Keith watched a flicker of nervousness and uncertainty cross Lance's face before he did his best to clear his expression again.

"You know, I don't think I've told you, but I've always thought you were pretty brave," Keith said.

Lance swallowed the last of the biscuit and rubbed his palms against his eyes. "Yeah, I look really brave right now."

Keith huffed out a little laugh at that, enough to get Lance to look at him. "You're an idiot."

"Thanks."

"You think I haven't noticed how you go on and on about how _you_ saved the day by coming out of a coma to shoot and defeat Sendak, _which was a total team effort by the way_ ," - half of Lance's mouth did quirk up in a grin then - "and yet you _never_ mention the fact that you legitimately threw yourself on top of Coran and saved his life from that explosion?"

Lance slowly met Keith's eyes as he straightened in his seat.

"We wouldn't be the team we are if you weren't part of it, you know," Keith added as he saw the life begin to come back into those blue eyes. "And being brave doesn't mean that you're not scared. I think its being scared but doing what needs to be done anyway."

"Are you scared?"

Keith nodded without hesitating. "I'm always scared, although," he looped his fingers in with Lance's fingers, "most of my fears are about losing any of you."

"Yeah, me too." Lance turned towards Keith and dipped his head so he could rest their foreheads together with a sigh as they both let their eyes fall shut. "Plus, my family has to be so worried about where I went. And I just can't handle the thought that they'll never know."

"Today is what we've been training for," Keith said with conviction. "We'll watch each others' backs. And we have our lions helping and protecting us. Voltron can defeat Zarkon."

"Promise me, though, Keith. Promise that if I don't make it, that you'll tell my family what happened to me? That I didn't disappear on purpose? And that I thought about them every day?"

"You'll tell them yourself."

"Promise me, though."

"I promise, Lance."

Lance leaned forward and closed the few inches between them so he could kiss Keith. Keith tasted like grape space jelly again and Lance smiled at the reminder of their first kiss. His nerves had settled somewhat, at Keith's promise and reminders that he wasn't alone, but also at Keith's insistence that he thought Lance was brave. And important.

He kissed Keith harder, not sure when he'd get the chance to do it again. He ran his free hand through Keith's soft hair before his fingers reached the soft fur of one of his ears.

"Dios, that sound," he murmured when Keith purred. He pulled back and grinned at Keith's red-kissed lips and pretty flush. "Keith, you must be an alien, because you abducted my heart."

Keith rolled his eyes but couldn't help staring fondly back at Lance's wide grin. "There you are."

"Okay let's go," Lance said, standing and stretching before heading towards his door. "Its meow or never."

"Dammit, Lance."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [suitboxers’ Tumblr with pics from chapter 5 in one fun place](https://suitboxers.tumblr.com/post/158442508079/arts-for-chapter-5-of-reader115s-fantastic) Please don't repost the artwork from here, but definitely head to suitboxers' site and show some love!! 
> 
> Also, when suitboxers posted the artwork for this story, they included the BEST TAG EVER: When Lance McClaims Keith Kogains. I love it :)
> 
> Most of Allura's speech to Keith came straight from the show (another good time to point out that I do not own Voltron). Also, yes, I have once again twisted season two's events to my own liking.
> 
>  
> 
> [Also, here's a link back to Flickr for the 1st picture, which is kind enough to let me store my photos to be embedded in stories](https://flic.kr/p/VGgY49)  
> [And a link back to Flickr for the 2nd picture](https://flic.kr/p/V17GzA)  
> [Plus, a link back to Flickr for the 3rd picture](https://flic.kr/p/VGgY5m)  
> 


	6. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This little epilogue begins after the fight that occurs at the end of season 2 (I'm not writing it out because you've probably seen it and I'm here for the emotional good stuff anyway).
> 
> So for this particular story, here are my headcanons:
> 
> 1) Zarkon is dead. He's dead, okay? Goodbye bad guy.
> 
> 2) Shiro's disappearance from the black lion is easily explained by him just exiting his lion before the others reach it. The dude's been under a lot of stress, amiright? So once everyone leaves his empty lion, they head to the kitchen to mope, which is where they find Shiro relaxing - with his feet up on the counter - while drinking some space lemonade. (Thanks for playing along with me on this, KaSaPe!)
> 
> These not only work with this particular story, but they're also the best I've got until September when season 3 arrives.

Sometimes it was cool to have a space cat boyfriend. The ears were soft and adorable, plus they easily told Lance if Keith was happy or upset. And it didn't matter what position Lance was in, Keith always found a way to curl up against him somehow, even when it didn't look like it would be comfortable. Not to mention the purring that often lulled Lance to sleep. And Lance had lost count of the number of times that he'd found Keith asleep in random spots around the castle, his body curved into places that Lance wouldn't have thought possible.

And sometimes, when he couldn't find Keith, he entertained the idea of just sticking an empty box out in the middle of the common room and waiting to see if - like a cat - Keith would somehow be summoned by the box and show up in order to see if he could fit in it.

And more than once, in his boredom, he'd thought about activating the laser pointer on his rifle and moving it in a zig zag pattern on a wall, just to see Keith's thoughts on random red dot movements…

But he was fairly certain Keith wouldn't be too happy with him for either of those ideas, and in general, he liked to keep Keith happy.

Then there were other times when it was _not cool_ to have a space cat boyfriend. Like right this fucking minute.

" _Keith Eleanor Kogane, you get your ass back here right now_!" Lance shouted through the comms as he ignored Hunk's pleading whispers that he be quieter.

"That's not my middle name," Keith muttered in response from wherever he was inside this old Galra base.

"I swear to god, every time - _every single time_ \- you go off by yourself something explodes!"

The back entrance of this Galra base had blown up about five minutes before, and Lance and Hunk were stuck waiting in the front with their bayards activated as they watched the Galra who were still stationed here scramble out. So far none of them had noticed the paladins. But so far, Keith hadn't exited the base yet, either.

Although Zarkon had been defeated, Allura's theory was that Haggar was now running the Galra military forces, which would explain why there were still active Galra bases and battle cruisers floating around the universe, which the Voltron paladins had been slowly but steadily destroying over the last six months.

"It worked, didn't it? They're leaving?" Keith asked.

"Not the point, _Keith_ ," Lance responded crisply. "What are you doing in there?"

"This place has a list of all the currently active Galra bases in its dataset? I'm collecting that information?"

"Yes, that was your mission," Lance responded dryly. "And according to Pidge, you already uploaded the records to the castle. _Why is the back of this building on fire?"_

Keith cleared his throat, and Lance heard his boyfriend's clear hesitation to respond. He dropped a hand off his rifle so he could rub his fingers against his forehead while he groaned at his boyfriend's impulsiveness.

"They're manufacturing some sort of explosive weapon in here?" Keith finally tentatively answered.

Lance groaned louder. "We talked about this, Keith. Remember? My curiosity killed the cat lecture? I had graphics and everything."

"I still have nightmares about those graphics," Hunk muttered, having otherwise wisely stayed out of the conversation between the other two up to this point.

Keith, meanwhile, huffed out an aggravated sound.

"I still don't see your ass out here," Lance growled in return. He was still watching the front exit and he could see that the steady stream of coughing, escaping Galra was slowing down.

"I'm deactivating their system with that virus Pidge made," Keith finally said.

"Oh, so now you're back to doing mission work, huh? Finished playing with their toys?"

Keith didn't answer him.

 

* * *

 

Having a suspicion that two of your teammates were crushing on each other, or pining as the younger kids called it – " _You're seriously not that much older than us, Shiro,"_ Pidge had added here later - was one thing.

Walking in on Keith propped up on the kitchen counter, with his legs wrapped around Lance's waist while their mouths moved hungrily against each other, was a _completely different thing_.

Shiro cleared his throat as Hunk and Pidge practically ran into the back of him at his unexpected stop.

Two sets of hazy eyes opened and turned towards the other three paladins as Lance attempted to use the hands he had on Keith's thighs as leverage to push away from Keith enough to stand up straight, not that Keith's legs allowed for much movement.

"Hey." Keith was the first to speak. "Lance and I are gonna be doing this a lot now."

Lance was the first to react with a chuckle that he tried his best to contain as he pressed his forehead to Keith's. "Blunt as ever," he murmured.

There were another few moments of stunned silence from the other three before Hunk thankfully broke it. "That's great, but, uh, could you not do _this_ where the food is kept?"

Lance beamed at his best friend and wrapped his hands around Keith's waist in order to pull his boyfriend down off the counter.

"Thank you," Hunk replied and he finally entered the room fully and moved to grab some bowls. "Seriously, though, I feel like this has been a long time coming and I'm happy for you guys."

Shiro and Pidge followed Hunk and Shiro grinned when Keith's eyes moved to him next.

"Well," Shiro started, "I don't want to make everything about Voltron-"

Pidge snickered and gave Keith and Lance small high-fives as she passed them.

"- but I'm certainly happy to see you two getting along so well. It's great for us as a team and obviously great for you both individually."

Keith tried to ignore the follow-up teasing look Shiro sent him, which thankfully negated some of the serious tone of his team captain speech.

"I'm not going to complain about anything that lessens the number of stupid fights you two have," Pidge said with a grin. "And, hey, good job on making our grumpy cat smile, Lance."

Lance looped his fingers in with Keith's and squeezed. "Well, he makes me smile a lot too." He sent his sweetest grin Keith's way and watched Keith try to duck his face and hide his blush. But Lance's free hand was there, lifting Keith's face again so that he could press kisses that began on one heated cheek and moved inward towards his lips.

"The food area!" Hunk announced as he sat.

Lance laughed and tugged on Keith's hand. "Okay, we'll be on our way, then!"

"Told you that was the best way to break it to them," Keith said on their way out. "Fast and easy, right?"

"The only time you're allowed to go _fast and easy_ ," Lance murmured back

"I take it back, I am going to complain. Because gross!" Pidge called out after them.

"We still have to tell Allura and Coran," Lance said before he tipped forward in order to kiss Keith once again when they were in the hallway.

"Let's just go make out in front of the mice," Keith said with a tug on Lance's hand. "Those two will know soon after."

 

* * *

 

Keith leaned against the table and rested his chin in the palm of one hand as his eyes roamed over Lance's pretty fingers where they sat tapping out a rhythm on the table across from where Keith sat.

Allura was reviewing details about a distress signal from a nearby planet. But they all knew the free-the-planet-inhabitants-from-Galra-soldiers-routine by now. Besides, Keith couldn't stop his thoughts from remembering how those fingers had deliciously teased him that morning. Or how he'd come undone from Lance's fingers alone, even if that hadn't been their initial intent. But those blessedly long fingers not only knew exactly what spot to focus on inside Keith, but they could reach it so _easily_. And they'd curled against that secret place again and again with such purpose that Keith could only cling and moan under Lance, all while Lance whispered encouraging words in his ears and looked at Keith as if he was the one who'd created all the stars in space.

He tried to keep his face impassive, sitting here in the middle of their team meeting, but he was getting warmer by the second thinking about how those fingers had spent the last few months earnestly dedicated to the task of learning how Keith liked to be touched.

He heard Lance huff out a sound that might've sounded like just a breath to anyone else, but held a whining plea that was for Keith's ears alone. Keith's nerve endings lit up at the sound and he felt heat in his belly as he tore his eyes away from Lance's fingers in order to meet Lance's eyes. There was a new flush running from Lance's neck all the way to the tips of his ears that almost made Keith smile. But there was also a challenging glint in those bright blue eyes. Lance mimicked Keith's posture by resting his chin in one of his palms and Keith knew Lance was onto him by the way he stared intently back at Keith and began to drum his fingers lightly against his cheek.

Keith's appreciation for his Galra ears was never stronger than when he was blushing. At least his ears could no longer turn red.

 

* * *

 

Shiro could hear the ferocious growling from the hallway. He paused for a moment for the sole purpose of heaving a deep sigh before he slid open the doors to the simulation room where the noise was originating. The scene inside the room was, sadly, exactly what he'd been expecting.

"Klanmuural," Shiro said, loud enough to be heard not only over the growls of the bear-like beast, but the two paladins who were whooping war cries from where they were currently situated on the creature's back.

At Shiro's correct pronunciation, the simulated klanmuural shrunk to a friendlier teddy bear version before disappearing altogether, sending Lance and Keith quickly tumbling to the floor.

"Shiro!" Keith groaned as he dropped hard on a shoulder and felt one of Lance's feet land hard enough to nearly bruise one of his ribs.

"We almost had him," Lance mumbled from where he'd fallen on his face.

Shiro heaved another deep sigh. "You are supposed to be learning the Altean language. And you're supposed to be doing it with the _safety_ on! Please tell me you've been doing more than just this all afternoon."

Lance sat up with a groan, rubbing at his nose. But he turned to Shiro and fluently said an entire sentence in Altean, complete with finger wagging in Shiro's direction.

Shiro turned to Keith. "What did he say?"

"He said, _of course we've been in here learning and how dare you insinuate otherwise_ ," Keith translated, although in a far less outraged tone than his boyfriend had just used. Then it was his turn to huff out an aggravated sigh as well. "He only lets me fight the bear after we've learned stuff."

Lance nodded and beamed in Shiro's direction. "One bear fight for every five new words we learn. And with that kind of incentive, I actually think we're ahead of Pidge!"

Shiro couldn't hide the surprise on his face.

 

* * *

 

"He's Galra."

"He's part Galra, yes," Allura responded. She wasn't sure why some of the leaders of the planets they liberated tried to point this fact out to her. As if she could somehow be unaware that she had a part-Galra paladin. She had eyes, she could see the cute ears. "And he, along with the assistance of a group of rebel Galra, helped us destroy Zarkon. Now, would you like to join our alliance or not?"

Shiro bit back a smile from where he stood next to Allura while the other four paladins remained a few steps behind them. Allura's tone of voice left no room for further discussion of their beloved part Galra teammate. And he loved her for it.

They'd just freed this planet from the Galra soldiers who were still pitifully trying to keep control of the inhabitants even without Zarkon's direction. Voltron's alliances were building steadily and they were always happy to have another civilization join in to help promote peace and freedom throughout the universe.

However, as they wrapped up their meeting with this group and reboarded the castle ship, Keith thought about the discussion Allura had led over breakfast a few days ago. Since they could all finally breathe a little now, Allura thought the paladins were long overdue for a break. And not just any break. She had mentioned that the five of them had been scooped up into this life without even knowing what they were getting themselves into. And now they were being offered the choice they didn't have at the beginning. She was setting a course for Earth, and offered it up as a visit, although it would be up to them whether or not they returned to the castle at the designated time and continued on with Voltron's mission.

Lance had been practically floating around the castle after this discussion.

But Keith had never felt heavier in his entire life.

 

* * *

 

After their battle with Zarkon, Shiro had requested that Kolivan stay on with them for a while. He said it was so Kolivan could teach them what he knew about current universal customs and maybe even a little bit of the Marmoran fighting style. But Keith also noticed during meals that Shiro began asking Kolivan questions that pried into Galra-specific customs and behaviors. And Keith noticed that Kolivan not only answered the questions freely, but he also glanced in Keith's direction often as he did so. It only took a few nights of this before Keith finally felt comfortable enough to begin asking Kolivan his own Galra-related questions. He was pretty sure Shiro had set him up on purpose.

He was always going to be pretty thankful for Shiro.

And due to his extended stay invitation, Kolivan had requested that his family be allowed to join them as well. As it was, instead of staying at the Blade of Marmora's headquarters, most of the soldiers stationed there had their families hiding in another secret location. And it had been quite a long time since Kolivan had seen his, which included not only his mate, but their two small and – _per Lance_ \- adorable children, Lex and younger brother, Tim.

The paladins stood by as the ship that brought Kolivan's family landed in one of their bays, and then they watched as he was happily reunited with them. Keith hadn't missed the way the reunion had affected Lance. Or Hunk. Even Pidge's eyes were beginning to look a little glassy as they all watched the hugs and affectionate ear rubs. And he was once again reminded that they were heading towards Earth where three of _his family members_ were going to be deboarding. He forced those thoughts away as he was introduced to Kolivan's family.

Lance had taken to the children immediately, and Keith spent the first day of their arrival using his improved hearing skills to search out his boyfriend solely by the squealing caused by Lance chasing around the two young and extremely fast Galra.

Keith leaned against the doorway when he finally found them later in one of the common rooms. Tag had been given up in exchange for digging through one of the bags of toys the kids had brought and from where Keith stood, he could see Lance sitting on the floor and holding up a tablet with one hand while his other hand waved across it purposefully.

He hadn't been spotted yet, allowing Keith a chance to just stand and soak in the sight of Lance with Lex settled in his lap to watch, while Tim was draped across his back, giving him the best vantage point to wave his hand over Lance's shoulder and try to give him pointers on the tablet's screen.

"This is how you color?" Lance finally asked. "What is this even a picture of?"

"It's a rorvack," Lex said.

"They're called that because that's the sound they make when they eat their prey!" Tim said, helpfully.

Lance's face twisted and Keith grinned.

"Don't you have any pictures of like spaceships or, I don't know, puppies to color? You know, something not terrifying?"

"What's a puppy?"

"Do you eat it?"

Lance shook his head at their simultaneous questions. "Here, I'll draw one."

Keith couldn't see the picture Lance was drawing on the tablet, but he could see the way the two kids' faces scrunched up in horror when he was finished.

"Those?" Tim suddenly pushed himself off Lance's back in order to stand. "Those are terrible! They bite and claw!" He lifted his tiny clawed hands and scrunched his face up further, looking as though he was trying to imitate one of the terrible puppies.

Keith thought it was a pretty good likeness.

"Well, maybe I didn't draw it right." Lance tilted his head and glanced at his sketch again. "Cause Earth puppies are sweet and - "

"And they're poisonous to Galra!"

"Okay, see!" Keith suddenly said, stepping further into the room. "Clearly not my fault dogs hate me!"

Lance's head shot up, his smile already in place at the sound of Keith's voice. "Well, we did have to put you in a healing pod for that bite."

"You got bit?" Tim's eyes widened as he turned to stare up at Keith. "And you lived?"

"That's amazing," Lex added as she scrambled out of Lance's lap and beelined for Keith so she could grab hold of his hand and proceed to stare adoringly up at him.

Keith offered her an awkward smile and gave his hand a test tug. Nope, she was not letting go. He shot _help me_ eyes in Lance's direction.

Lance pretended not to notice.

Thankfully, Pidge wandered in then and eventually ended up saving Keith's hostage hand, although in a way that none of them were expecting.

She settled in on one of the couches with her laptop and began typing without even making eye contact with anyone else, which Lance always found amusing. After all, she could just work in her room if she really wanted to be alone. But he was pretty sure Pidge thrived on all of their company as much as she thrived by working that big brain of hers.

Lex suddenly let go of Keith's hand and he moved to have a seat next to Lance where he bumped their shoulders together as he leaned over to see what Lance and Tim were now coloring on the tablet. Choosing a color was the easy part, he noticed. The hard part seemed to come in knowing how to wave your hand correcting over the screen to fill in the picture correctly. Although, Lance seemed to already have the hang of it and Keith found his eyes drawn more to Lance's concentrated face than the picture of the giant squid thing that was currently swallowing what looked like a pirate ship whole.

In fact, he was so intently watching the way Lance's tongue would peek out between his lips every few seconds that he almost missed what it was that Lex said to Pidge.

"You look like Matt."

Lance almost dropped the tablet as both his and Keith's heads whipped up to see a stunned looking Pidge stare back at Lex beside her.

Lex's eyes moved slowly around the room to glance at the guys before she turned back to Pidge, clearly worried she'd said something wrong.

"It's just – well, I mean Matt's the only other human we've ever met, but even so, you look like him."

"Where is he?" Pidge whispered.

"Back at the base where we've been living."

The words were barely out of her mouth before the three paladins jumped to their feet and took off to find Allura. Lance stuffed Tim under his arm like as a football on the way out of the door and Lex only grinned as she jumped up to follow.

 

* * *

 

So turning the castle around and wormhole-jumping to another secret rebel base in order to watch Pidge bust into the middle of the group's dinner shouting her brother's name before hugging the ever living crap out of him had been a real highlight to this entire paladin deal.

Plus it had delayed their return to Earth by a day or so, which Keith appreciated since his chest got tight every time he even remotely thought about the goodbye that he was about to endure prior to Lance's departure.

So he was happy for Pidge and he got a few extra days with Lance. Win win.

And now with Matt by her side, Pidge was as excited as Hunk and Lance to return home. Keith knew at least that Shiro wasn't going to be heading to Earth with them. Not only did he want to stay near the lions, but he'd mentioned to Keith in a private conversation that he wasn't comfortable heading back to Earth just yet.

"They just sedated me without even letting me talk last time," Shiro said with a shake of his head.

"Well, you wouldn't crash land right outside the Garrison this time," Keith had offered.

"I just feel more comfortable in the castle right now."

Keith couldn't argue with him. He'd be happy for the company anyway.

 

* * *

 

Lance had been on dish duty after dinner and was now in search of his cute boyfriend for some quality cute boyfriend time. But so far Keith wasn't in the common room with the others, or secretly bear fighting in the simulation room, or squeezing in some extra nighttime training on the training deck. And this castle had way too many rooms to be looking in every single one for a wayward boyfriend.

He finally reached his and Keith's new room. Once it was clear that they were only using one bedroom every night anyway, Coran had moved the two of them into a room with a larger bed. Although, since Lance spent every night wrapped around Keith, he hadn't been too concerned about needing a bed with more space. However, he did appreciate that this room had a larger bathroom. With an actual tub.

Plus it was located in a separate hallway from all those who were in single rooms. He couldn't say he didn't enjoy that.

And as their bedroom door slid open, he couldn't help but smile as he finally found Keith, wearing Lance's jacket, curled up asleep in a chair in the corner. Lance sank down on the edge of the bed that was closest to Keith and tilted his head. Keith had half his face tucked down in the jacket collar and his bangs were all falling over to one side of his forehead.

"Adorable," Lance murmured. "Despite the fact that that looks completely uncomfortable, space kitten."

"Don't you dare start using _kitten_." Keith's eyes slid open so he could properly glare at Lance.

"I've been looking all over for you, babe."

Keith sat up from the position he'd curled himself into and stretched his arms out in front of himself before he slowly stood, doing his best to appear innocent before he jumped forward and pounced on Lance. Lance laughed as he fell back on the mattress and wrapped his arms tightly around Keith in return.

"Stealing my jacket again?"

"It smells like you."

It didn't matter that they'd said this back and forth script every time Lance caught Keith in his jacket, Lance still felt his stomach flip happily every time he heard Keith say his line.

"Hey Keith, you want to stay on and help with this Voltron alliance, right?"

Keith had his face tucked into Lance's neck but he nodded anyway. "Shiro seems to think that my visibly supporting the diplomacy meetings will be helpful. He says that as more populations learn that one of Voltron's paladins is part Galra, that it will help lessen the stigma of the Galra who weren't involved in Zarkon's army."

"Like a spokesperson."

"Yeah, I guess. You can totally see me as a believable diplomatic spokesperson, right?"

"I think we both know the answer to that."

Keith huffed out a laugh as his fingers reached up to curl around Lance's neck so he could run his fingertips through the ends of his hair.

"This is getting long here in the back," Keith murmured. "Starting to remind me of -"

"Don't you dare say it," Lance growled.

"- a mullet."

"It does not!" Lance dug his fingers into Keith's sides, causing the red paladin to wiggle away from him as he laughed. Keith soon retaliated, though, which led to a small wrestling match that almost landed both of them on the floor.

When they were finished, Keith settled in to sit beside Lance. His ears lowered unconsciously as he pulled the jacket tighter around himself.

"I was talking to Hunk earlier," Lance said as he fluffed a pillow behind his back, "and he's excited about visiting his family, but he's already talking about what kind of food and ingredients he's bringing back with him when he returns. Plus, I think he wants to ask Shay if she'd like to come on board here too. And Pidge is definitely coming back, most likely with Matt. I mean, they still have to look for their dad, so - "

"Maybe you could leave your jacket here with me when you go home?" Keith asked.

"Wait, what?"

"Well, unless you think you'll need it?"

"No, I mean, wait as in, Keith – light of my life - do you think there's any possible way I'm leaving you behind on this castle for the month we've been given to go visit Earth?" Lance narrowed his eyes as Keith's eyes moved to the blanket covering their bed and stayed there. "Or," he said in a softer tone, "are you also somehow under the impression that I'm not only going to leave you here while I go to Earth, but then not return?"

"That's your home, Lance," Keith said, his throat so tight he almost didn't get the words out. Plus, his ears were refusing to listen to him and he knew they were still pressed unhappily back against his hair right now. But he wasn't going to be selfish. He was going to push Lance towards what he knew would make Lance happy.

"No," Lance said sternly. "You're my home now, Keith."

"That's your family," Keith added, still unable to draw his eyes up to Lance's face.

"You're my family," Lance insisted. "Galra mate for life, right? Well, so do I. And there's no way I'm ever going to leave you behind. Anywhere."

Lance poked a finger into Keith's chest and Keith involuntary gulped in some air, not even realizing that he'd been holding his breath. He finally lifted his eyes to meet Lance's, and when Lance was certain he had Keith's attention, he continued.

"I'm never going to forget or disregard the rest of my family, Keith. And _we_ are going to visit them, because I am definitely introducing my future husband to my parents."

Keith huffed out an incredulous breath even though he knew Lance was being serious. He was pretty serious about making that a _Real Thing_ in the future as well. But he still wasn't used to how easily or regularly those words rolled right off of Lance's tongue.

Lance continued undeterred. "But I don't belong _there_ anymore. I belong here doing this job." He ran a hand through his hair for a moment as he thought about the things Keith had done to support him. "You're the one who helped me realize that, you know? Showed me that I do have an important part to play here. And I know I sound sappy as fuck right now, but I also know I'm always going to belong wherever you are, space cat.

Sappy or not, happiness bloomed in Keith's chest and he responded by crawling into Lance's lap. He felt Lance smile against his lips as a loud purr began to rumble from him.

"I want you to make me your home too, Keith."

"I love you," Keith whispered immediately as his lips moved from Lance's mouth over towards his ear.

"That's a yes to meeting the parents, right?" Lance teased back. He laughed when Keith's teeth connected with his earlobe and squeezed his arms even tighter around Keith's middle. "I love you, too, Keith."

Keith's ears perked up happily as he pulled back far enough to see Lance's face again. "Although, how do you expect me to casually visit Earth with these ears?"

"Easy," Lance said with a grin. "Pidge says it's October, so we can just tell anyone who asks that you're wearing ears on a headband as part of a costume or something." Lance ran both of his hands through Keith's hair and then rubbed fondly over his ears for a moment. "No one would be able to tell with all this unruly hair if you really have a headband on or not. Although, maybe just try not to move them too much while we're in public."

Keith smiled at that, at Lance's enthusiasm and the fact that he'd already worked out a partial plan for Keith to feel comfortable.

"We're totally telling my family the truth, though. It'll be way more believable that I've been in space this whole time when I bring back my alien boyfriend. Plus, my sisters are seriously going to be jealous that I managed to bag someone with real cat ears."

Keith's ears flicked back and forth contentedly under Lance's fingers as he dropped his forehead to Lance's forehead. "You're sure this is a good idea?"

"Pft, they're all gonna love my space cat boyfriend."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [suitboxers’ Tumblr with pics from this final chapter all in one fun place](https://suitboxers.tumblr.com/post/158524141904/arts-for-the-final-chapter-of-reader115s-amazing)  
>  Please don't repost the artwork from here, but I definitely hope you'll go give Aleks some love over the amazing artwork - they deserve it :)
> 
> Also, I wrote out that one of the little Galra children grabbed Keith's hand and stared at him adoringly and suddenly had an image of Lex from Jurassic Park, in case any of you were wondering where the little Galra children's names came from (I also don't own Jurassic Park).
> 
> I'm going to miss these space dorks. As much as I enjoyed season 2, writing this certainly helped fill in some of the gaps. Thanks for coming along on this ride with me! 
> 
> Update: Want to see how Lance and Keith's visit to Earth goes? Click on the "Next Work" link down below.
> 
> Writer: [Reader115's Tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/dashboard/blog/reader115)  
> Artist: [suitboxers’ Tumblr ](https://suitboxers.tumblr.com/)
> 
>  
> 
> [Also, here's a link back to Flickr for the 1st picture, which is kind enough to let me store my photos to be embedded in stories](https://flic.kr/p/VGgY5G)  
> [And a link back to Flickr for the 2nd picture](https://flic.kr/p/V3YSoR)  
> 


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